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"Remind me again why we agreed to this?" Andy muttered to Booker as they waited in line to clear security at the cruise port."Because both you and Joe are completely unable to say no to either Nile or Quỳnh, and Nile was smart enough to get Quỳnh on board before she brought it up with the rest of us," Booker said with a sigh."Oh, yeah," Andy said. "I forgot."Booker didn't know how she could have forgotten, given that the two miscreants were busy hanging on each other, pointing out various things and generally acting like two sorority sisters instead of one woman who was thousands of years old, and the other a complete and utter trouble-maker. Not that anyone would believe him, because Nile had perfected the art of looking sad and innocent - it wasn't her fault that she was immortal and was never going to get to see her mother or brother again. No, sir! Not her!He grumbled to himself as Andy stepped away to join Quỳnh and Nile, The whole line shuffled forward, one slow step at a time, and he resisted the urge to pull out his flask. That was all the booze he was allowed for the whole cruise, because while they were agreeing to things that were terrible ideas, he'd agreed with Nile to "take this opportunity to cut back" on his drinking. Why he'd thought that she was right was a fucking mystery, especially when they were going to be trapped on a floating city in the middle of the ocean.Oh, yes, Nile and her innocent eyes. Fuck.The six of them shifted around, and he found himself standing next to Nicky, while Joe joined the women. He couldn't help but notice that Nicky's jaw was tight, and he was staring at the floor. "Is everything alright?" Booker asked, worried. Nicky wasn't the most outgoing of people, especially not compared to Joe, but he wasn't usually this taciturn either."I am not looking forward to this," Nicky mumbled."That makes two of us," Booker asked. "Any particular reason besides it just sounds boring as shit?"Nicky's jaw flexed again. "I... get seasick," he said. "I get seasick a lot."Booker stared at Nicky, feeling as if he'd been dropped into an alternate universe. "I forgot about that," he said, as flashbacks of their last terrible trans-Atlantic crossing popped into his head. Poor Nicky had spent a sizable portion of each day trying to get down enough fluids to keep from dehydrating, and the rest of the time throwing them back up. "Why in the world did you agree to this? Fuck, why did Joe?""He claims that cruise ships do not rock the way the boats I know do. He said he looked it up before he agreed, but... I have my doubts," Nicky said miserably, as they shuffled forward again.It was hard to believe that Joe would agree to something that had the potential to make Nicky sick, but he didn't always have the best judgment. "Did you try to talk him out of it?" Booker asked curiously."Not much," Nicky said with a sigh. "Quỳnh seems so excited by this, neither of us had the heart to tell her no."Of course, and what Quỳnh (and Nile) wanted, they got, if it was in the family's ability to provide. Booker knew this. He even supported it, most of the time. But this was a harebrained idea and they were all going to pay for it. He just knew it.They finally reached the front of the security line, and they each separated to go through the x-ray machines. Booker wasn't thinking about anything except how he really didn't want to do this when he emptied his pockets."Sir, what's in the flask?" the guard asked.He blamed the lack of alcohol for answering honestly. "It's whiskey," he said."You can't bring that on board," she said. "You can either surrender your flask, or you can dump it out, but you can't bring alcohol on board."What. The. Fuck.He glanced around and saw a look of nervous hope on Nile's face, which was the only thing that kept him from saying fuck it and walking away from this disaster. "Where can I pour it out?" he asked with a sigh. He wasn't going to surrender the flask - it had been a gift from Andy from when he first started traveling with them.The guard directed him to a water fountain a few feet away, and he dutifully went and dumped the whiskey down the drain, grateful that it was rotgut, not one of their good alcohols. With the flask empty, he cleared the x-ray machine quickly, and he joined up with the rest of his family just before the area where they'd get their passports scanned.They stayed clustered together when they discovered that rather than a customs agent examining their passport and stamping it, it was a friendly woman who scanned Nile's passport using a digital reader first and then instructed her to stand in front of a camera to take her picture.And finally, this was what pissed Andy off, and she started glaring at Nile. "Is there a way to do this without the picture?" she asked the customs woman. Somehow she managed to just sound curious instead of angry or paranoid."I'm afraid not," the woman said, her voice impossibly cheery. "We use the image for boarding and leaving the ship. It's so much faster this way!" As if Andromache the Scythian worried about something taking a few extra minutes.It looked like Andy might actually put her foot down and bring this whole nonsensical farce to a screeching halt. And then Quỳnh wrapped her hand around Andy's arm and gave her eyes that would give Nile's a run for their money. They said plainly, "I have spent five hundred years trapped in an iron coffin. Surely you won't prevent family time.""Quỳnh - " Andy said in a weak protest. But she also allowed her photo to be taken.They followed everyone else who was boarding to something called the Lido deck, where chaos ruled supreme. There were more people than should have been allowed, all feeding their faces with burgers and fries or buffet food that didn't look... terrible, Booker could admit.The four older immortals never turned down food, so they all got plates. Just as Booker was wondering where everyone else had gone, he realized that they were sitting at a table in a prime location - good viewing of the sea from the window, large enough for all six of them, and off the walking area so that they wouldn't be disturbed."Do I want to know how you got this table?" he asked as he sat down in the last remaining seat.Nile said "No," even as Andy smirked and bit off part of her burger. They were pretty good - juicy without being too greasy - and he started to eat happily. "Is there a cost for this food?" Joe asked as he poked at the burger on his plate."Not beyond what we paid for the cruise," Nile said. "I know it's not as good as what Nicky would make but I'm sure you'll enjoy it after some of the things you've tried to convince me to eat over the years."It was Joe's turn to smirk, but he also started to eat. By the time all of the burgers and fries were reduced to crumbs, the deck had started to empty out. "Where is everyone going?" Quỳnh asked.Nile glanced at her watch "The rooms should be available," she said, and she pushed back from the table to stand up. "Let's go."When Nile opened the door to the stateroom that Booker was going to be sharing with her, he sighed. The room was tiny, and he was grateful that she'd managed to talk Andy into a balcony because it added a few more feet to the room. At least the beds were set up as two twins, so that they wouldn't have to either inconvenience the cabin steward or deal with sharing a bed.Nile was a terrible bed hog, not that she'd admit it, and as the only two not in a relationship, they got paired up all the time.He could just hear Nicky and Joe as they checked out their room on one side. He couldn't hear anything at all from Andy and Quỳnh on the other. He wasn't sure which was worse, honestly.Setting down the small bag of things he absolutely couldn't live without, he sighed when Nile said, "Okay, we've seen our room. Let's go explore!""You've gotten your way about us going on vacation," he grumbled. "How about you let an old man take a nap?""Nah," she said, grabbing him by the hand and dragging him back out into the hall to pound on Andy and Quỳnh's door. She pointed him at the room for Joe and Nicky, and he knew better than to argue.Then the six of them stood in the hallway as Andy and Joe bickered about whether it would be better to explore from the top down or the bottom up. Booker was shocked when both Nicky and Quỳnh took Joe's side, and so they headed down to the second floor, since according to Nile's map, there was "nothing interesting" on the first floor.The second floor yielded a glass enclosed atrium and a bar. Everyone but Nile and Booker immediately ordered drinks. When Booker would have joined them, Nile gave him those damn eyes again, and he sighed and ordered a soda instead. "I am not going an entire week without booze," he stated firmly as he sipped his sugar water.Andy turned to face him and said, "If you're having trouble keeping your word to Nile, we can help," and he swore creatively in Mandarin. "No, no, no, I am not having you all police my drinking," he insisted.From the looks on their faces, he might as well have said nothing, because they all seemed determined. Ah, well, he could just avoid this floor and the Ledo deck and then he wouldn't be tempted.An hour later, he realized that this was going to be more difficult than he thought originally. There were bars everywhere, and if they were the slightest bit inconvenient, there were waiters willing to bring you a drink. "Nile - " he started to say, as Andy ordered her third Long Island Iced Tea of the afternoon, "Don't you think this is a little unfair? I have never been reminded so much about the existence of booze, even in a liquor store!""I know you have the strength to do it.," she said, and he grimaced."It's not a matter of strength," he said. "I know I'm strong enough, whatever that means in this context - ""Great! I'll stay sober with you," she cut him off, and there was no way it wasn't deliberate. "Someone needs to keep an eye on these geezers."Nicky's eyes were twinkling as he sipped his glass of wine.The ship jerked slightly, and Booker glanced out on the deck. He could just make out the fact that the ship had started to move. "Well, would you look at that?" Andy asked as she wandered over to the window. "Those articles that Joe found about not being able to feel motion were pretty accurate.""Speak for yourself," Nicky said, and he was suspiciously pale. He set down his wineglass hard enough that a little sloshed over the rim. "I can definitely tell that we're moving.""Nicky, ya amar, it's your mind playing tricks on you," Joe said, his voice soothing. Booker wondered if it was going to be that simple...Only Nicky glared at Joe and rushed away, Joe following.They didn't see either Nicky or Joe the rest of the afternoon or evening, which was fine. The ship was moving relatively smoothly, but Booker could feel enough movement that he was sure that Nicky was having a miserable time of it.Next was dinner in the dining room - an experience that Andy suffered through because Quỳnh wanted to be there. She didn't say anything. She didn't have to, with the sighs and the soft hums of annoyance she made.Finally, after dinner, Nile let Booker go back to their room. Their suitcases had been delivered, and Booker spent a few minutes unpacking his, and then he changed into sweats and collapsed into bed.He was so glad that this was only a four day cruise. More than that and he might have dived off the back just to end it.He woke up when Nile jumped onto his bed. "Come on, Book - we've docked and we have an excursion to go snorkeling," she said as soon as Booker cracked his eyes open."You have got to be kidding me," he said, but he let her pull him out of bed and push him into the bathroom. He could hear her rousting out everyone else while he cleaned up, and by the time he was finished buttoning up his shirt over his swim trunks, he could hear Nicky and Joe in the hallway."I am not going," Nicky was saying as Booker slipped into the hallway. "I managed not to throw up yesterday, but only barely. I am not challenging that by going on a small sailboat over the waves.""But hayati - " Joe started."No, tesoro. Not even for you. You five should go, and I will stay here and read my book while the ship is not moving."With that, Nicky turned and walked away. Booker had to admire the fact that he managed to ignore both Nile and Quỳnh, giving him sad eyes as he went. Booker knew that he didn't have similar strength, so he just followed in their wake as they led the way to the A level to walk out into the pier.He had to admit the excursion was actually a lot of fun. He didn't think he'd ever seen that many fish when not in an aquarium. He'd been a little worried about Quỳnh, but she'd dived in with every appearance of enjoyment, and when she caught him looking, said in an old dialect of French, "It's the fact that I have the choice."He guessed that made sense.Several of the people on the excursion with them ended up pretty severely sunburned, and one of the women approached Andy to ask, "Who made your sunscreen? I never saw you re-apply it the whole day, and yet you're not burned. That must be some amazing stuff." Andy just looked confused.Thankfully, Nile realized the problem and jumped in. "She's just very lucky - doesn't burn at all.""Yeah, I'm lucky," Andy said with a grin.The woman smiled back, and then looked over at Quỳnh. Whatever she saw on Quỳnh's face sent her straight for the rum punch.Andy went to follow her, only to be held back by Nile. "Let the woman get her drink before you set her up to be murdered by Quỳnh, would you?" she said."I would not kill her," Quỳnh said firmly. "Knock her overboard, perhaps, but not kill her.""Not helping," Nile said, but the woman had her drink in hand and went to join the rest of her friends. So Booker watched as Andy, Quỳnh, and Joe got rum punch of their own, while Booker sighed and drank the plain fruit punch that Nile had gotten for the two of them.Nicky came out of their room as they walked down the hall, and Booker had to admit that he seemed much happier. "I'm not going to even ask if you had fun," he said. "Tesoro, come with me. We have just enough time to get your hair clean before dinner.""I do have a thousand years worth of experience taking care of my own hair," Joe grumbled but he went. Andy and Quỳnh went into their room, and by the time he got into the one he was sharing with NIle, she was already in the shower.Booker was just finishing his turn when he heard Andy scream. He didn't think he'd ever heard her sound so distraught. He nearly tripped over the step getting out of the bathroom, and he only remembered he couldn't just run into the hallway naked because NIle reminded him.By the time he'd managed to get his pants on and over to Andy's and Quỳnh's room, everyone else was there. The case for her labrys was out on the bed, and it was open and empty."Those bastards!" She was ranting and waving a piece of paper around."What in the world?" he said, leaning over to Nile who looked less outraged and more amused, "Who took her ax?""Apparently they saw it in her luggage and security took it out of the case for 'safe-keeping'," Nile said. "She just didn't open the case yesterday.""That doesn't answer why she brought something that was so obviously a weapon?" he whispered."Because it was labeled a 'reproduction' and in my checked bag," Andy raged. "I fly like that all the time!""Yes, but Andy, when you fly, you can't reach your checked bag," Nile said. Booker got the feeling that this wasn't the first or even fifth time she said it."This is absolutely ridiculous," she fumed. "How is it safer to have it in security than with the person who knows how to use it?"Quỳnh stepped up. "My love, you will not need it. There is no one on this ship who can stand against you even bare-handed and you know it."Booker watched in fascination as Andy turned to her and slowly calmed from towering rage to merely annoyed. "It's my ax. They had no right to take it.""Did they take it for good? Or will they return it when we get back to Florida?" Booker asked, trying to grab the piece of paper in Andy's hand. She released it and he scanned the text quickly. "According to this, it will be returned when they return all controlled items, on the last night of the voyage."Andy rolled her eyes. "So I'm not safe to have it except for the last night? How does that make any sense at all?""It doesn't," Nile said. "But it is what it is, and now you've learned?""I've learned not to get on a damn cruise ship," Andy fumed, but Quỳnh pinched her. "Ow. What? You're not getting me on another of these things. Once was enough.""And here I was, thinking that we might come on another cruise, just the two of us. Maybe to have our honeymoon on one, a longer one?"At the mention of getting married, Andy went a bit googly-eyed, and Booker had to smother a laugh in his hand. He wasn't alone - both Nile and Joe were doing the same thing. "I thought you said that getting married was pointless because it would never represent all we are to each other?" But that was definite eagerness on her face."I might be rethinking that position," Quỳnh said, raising an eyebrow. "Of course, we could practice for the honeymoon now if you like?"Andy stared at her for a second, her jaw on the floor. Before she recovered, Nile said, "Nope!" and started pushing everyone out of their room. "We'll see you tomorrow," she called over her shoulder.Booker grinned at the situation. At least he wasn't being sexiled on the boat. He had to share a room with Nile, true, but it was better than a couch while Andy and Quỳnh banged on one side of a crowded bedroom and Nicky and Joe - he caught the expression on their faces. "No, not going to sit in our room and listen to sex on both sides of us," Booker said. "Nile, let me comb my hair, and then can I interest you in the steakhouse? Maybe they can get us in without a reservation."Just then, something banged into the wall from the women's room. "Ugh," she groaned. "Can't they keep it in their pants for a few days?""No, they can't," Joe said with a grin, and Booker hadn't realized that the two men were still hanging around. "And we can't either." With a laugh, Joe grabbed Nicky by the hand and started to drag him off.NIle met his eyes, annoyance clear in hers. "Sure. Steak. I might even bend to share a bottle of wine."Booker grabbed the comb out of the bathroom and straightened his hair before sliding into the shirt he'd planned to wear from dinner. "Now, now, aren't we supposed to be strong enough to resist alcohol?"She laughed as the two of them fled, heading to the steakhouse.Eating dinner with Nile was just fun. She had no interest in Booker, and frankly he was glad, since she was just... so young. It wasn't even just the fact that he'd been immortal longer, either. Even when he'd been her actual age, he would have been too old for her, he thought. He'd never been that eager to celebrate life in everything.But her obsession with getting Booker to cut back on the booze aside, she was a good friend and a great dining companion. They ordered their food, and laughed behind their hands at the way the waiter looked at them, as if they were a cute couple.After a glance around at the staff, he shifted over to Arabic to talk to her, since that seemed like the least likely language for the staff to understand. Besides, she could always use some practice. He had to respect her, though, because she was learning three languages at once, by choice, and only really slipped between Italian and French occasionally."You couldn't have put us on one end? Or better yet, a few rooms away?" he asked her, pretending to be grumpy."I did actually try," she said with a laugh. "When Andy saw, she flipped. She actually wanted to get a suite, but there wasn't one big enough for all six of us, and she didn't want us split up into two, either.""Well, at least we're not in the same room as them when they're all having sex," he said with a sigh."I know! Do they have no shame?" she asked with a giggle.He shook his head. "Andy would tell you that she was born before - ""Shame was invented," they said together and she went from a giggle to laughing so hard she nearly fell out of her seat. He stared at her, laughing softly at her antics, but he didn't think the statement was that funny."The look on her face when I suggested that the next safehouse should have separate bedrooms for everyone," she hiccuped. And yeah, that memory was funny as shit. Safehouses procured by anyone but Andy did have separate rooms, generally. But she had the most safehouses of any of them, in the most cities, and they were all generally of the "one room cabin" type, with little to no privacy. Booker was grateful that most of them had a door for the bathroom.Their food came out, and Booker had to admit that the steak was pretty good. They actually understood the assignment of cooking the steak medium-rare, and it was well-seasoned and tender. From the look on her face, Nile wasn't enjoying her lobster quite as much. "Everything alright, Nile?""Everyone raves about lobster. It was the thing to buy your date when I was in Chicago. But this... this is just weird."Booker knew the kinds of things that Nile had been expected to eat over the last couple of years, and he couldn't believe that this was all that strange when put on that scale, so he just raised an eyebrow. "So weird you can't eat it?" he asked. If that was the case, he was prepared to switch entrees with her."No, no, I can eat it," she said, but she eyed his steak as she cut a piece of the lobster free."Let's switch," he said with a sigh. "I like lobster, and you can have my steak."She looked hopeful. "Are you sure?"In response, he just picked up his plate and held it out to her. Thankfully, the sides were in separate dishes, because he was not giving up his brussel sprouts without a fight.The lobster was pretty good, though not on par with the steak, which Nile was making disappear with gusto. Pretty soon, they just had the crumbs left. "Do you think they're done?" she asked as they signed their receipts to charge it to their accounts.Booker yawned. He was exhausted, and tomorrow was going to be an early day as well. "I don't actually care," he admitted. "I want to lounge around for a while and go to bed early. I'm sure you have some sort of exciting plan for us for tomorrow.""We're having a 'stingray' experience," she said as they got up and started back towards the elevators."What the hell does that mean?" Booker stared at her as they waited. "Aren't stingrays what killed... what's his name, the Australian guy. You know - 'those crocs are angry. I'm going to go and dance on their heads'," he said in a bad Australian accent.She returned his look, obviously wondering if he'd lost his mind. After a minute, her expression cleared. "Are you talking about Steve Irwin?" she asked. When Booker nodded, she grinned and said, "You know he died when I was twelve, right?"'Oh, shush, you." The elevator got there and they got in, sending it to the floor that their room was on. "The question stands - did you sign us up for something that's going to get someone killed?"She threw her head back and laughed. "No, not hardly. Stingrays in general are supersafe, and the ones they use for this are used to humans. There will be no deaths. There will, however, be Joe's face when he's asked to kiss a stingray."That got Booker laughing, which almost made it bearable when they got to their room and discovered that they could still hear both couples going at it. "Argh," Nile said. "I love them all, but they have no manners sometimes."Booker caught her eye, and then they said together, "They were born before manners were invented." Then he went to his toiletry kit and pulled out ear plugs, tossing a pair to her. "These won't make it so you don't hear them at all, but it will make them bearable," he said, fitting his own in place. It made it so that it was like he was hearing Joe and Quỳnh from underwater, and he couldn't hear Nicky or Andy at all.He stripped down to his boxers and t-shirt, grabbed his book, and got in the bed. On the other side, Nile was wrapping her hair, and he watched vaguely. It was something he'd seen hundreds of times. He was pleased that Nile had gotten so comfortable with Andy, Joe, and Nicky while he'd been in exile and that she seemed perfectly accepting of his early return. As often as they were sexiled (a great word - thank you Nile) they always seemed to be together.They both read for about an hour and then when he glanced over, he realized that Nile had fallen asleep. Grinning, he turned out the light.Nicky didn't argue about getting off the ship the next day - apparently getting laid had made him more accepting of the whole "on a boat" thing. So bright and early, they were all waiting for the next tender onto the island."So explain this to me," Joe said. "Why isn't there a pier?""Because there isn't a harbor deep enough for a cruise ship," Nile said, with the exaggerated patience of someone repeating this for the third time. "And the cruise companies own the island. They want to keep it pristine for passengers to visit, so... tendering in.""And these stingrays are safe?" Nicky said. "Didn't they kill Steve Irwin?"Nile looked like she wanted to bash her head into the wall. Since she'd already answered this question for both Joe and Andy, he guessed he couldn't blame her. "Oh, look - we can get on the tender!" she exclaimed, leading them to seats on the upper floor.Nicky already looked a little green, but the sea was mostly calm, and they'd supposedly only be on the water for a few minutes. He did have to laugh at the swimsuits that Nicky and Joe were wearing. Joe was wearing the tiniest speedo known to man combined with a t-shirt. Nicky's was the loudest pair of swim trunks that Booker had ever seen - every color of neon seemed to be represented.The tender filled quickly, and then it was off, headed to the small pier on the island. Nicky was getting more green by the second, to the point where Booker was braced to grab him if he leant over the railing, but before that became an issue, they were at the dock and off the small boat."And the only way back to the cruise ship is that thing?" Nicky asked as they walked away."Yes, but it's only a few minutes, hayati. You'll be fine," Joe soothed. Booker missed the rest of the conversation as he kept Nile company while she checked them in and was told where to meet the rest of their group.The wait was short, as was the tram ride to the small cove where the "experience" was being held. They listened to the guide's information, and then put on the required life jackets, water shoes, and snorkels. Booker snorted quietly. Joe looked ridiculous. The water was cool but not cold, and as Booker snorkeled through the relatively shallow area, he marveled at how close he got to the animals.It hadn't been very long before they were rounded up and told to stand in the circle. They were handed wild conchs and taught how to tell their sex. (which he wasn't sure was true. It was possible that the guide was just shitting them.) Several people were handed sea cucumbers, which looked like, well, shit, and everyone was encouraged to kiss them for "good luck."They got to feed the stingrays, which was cool, and then one of the guides came around with a small stingray named Tiny. Everyone was told to kiss her (yes, Joe's face was priceless) and when she came around again to have them "look at the stingray's mouth" he was not expecting it when the damn thing spat water into his mouth. He tried not to gag as everyone else laughed - only to laugh in return when the stingray did the same to each of them. He had no idea why the people on the other side of the circle stood there and let the guide do the same to each of them.After they returned the various pieces of equipment, they decided to walk back to the beach. On the way there, they each pointed out various flowers (and the occasional bug or lizard) to each other. "What do you guys want to do now?" Nile asked when they got back."You sure you don't have us signed up for a hike?" Andy asked, but she softened it by gripping the back of Nile's neck and shaking her gently."I'm sure there's something if you like - " Nile acted like she was going to go to the information desk, but Joe made a loud sound of negation. "I'm going to go lie down on the beach," he said. "I don't want to do anything for a few hours."Nicky followed him down, and then the rest of them followed like ducklings. There were beach chairs everywhere, and they didn't have to go far to find six of them together.The rest of the afternoon was spent either in the water or lounging around, long enough that they had to hurry to get a tender back to the ship, and they were on the last one. Nicky looked like he'd managed to tire himself out enough that he didn't even get a little seasick.After getting puppy eyes from Quỳnh and Nile all the way back to the ship, everyone agreed to go to dinner in the dining room, so they cleaned up and headed down. Their waiter seemed pleased to finally have all six of them together, and Booker knew that Nile had mentioned that most of their income came from tips. "Do we need to give them money?" he whispered to her as he bustled off with their order."I already arranged for their tips," she whispered back. Then she turned and looked at Nicky. "I have a question for you."Nicky smiled and sipped his wine. "Yes, Nile?""Isn't Genoa on the Mediterranean?" she asked.He visibly braced himself as if he could see where the question was leading. "Yes, it is," he said."And wasn't the port their biggest source of income?" she asked, and now Booker saw where it was going as well. He bit back the way he wanted to chortle at Nicky's discomfort."I suppose - " Nile looked at him and he sighed. "Yes, yes it was.""So how come you get seasick?" Everyone at the table started to laugh.He rubbed his eyes. "Just unlucky I guess. Thankfully we can get to most places in the world without sailing - this trip notwithstanding.""That must have really sucked for you," she said after a moment of laughter."Sucked just as bad for me," Joe piped up. Nicky glared at him, as if he knew what Joe was getting ready to say. "I spent every boat trip keeping his hair out of his face as he puked."Nicky reached across and flicked him in the forehead as Andy and Quỳnh nodded sympathetically. "Us, too," Andy said, and Nicky just rolled his eyes.While they were eating, the boat got underway once again, and Booker noticed that Nicky had deliberately picked a seat with his back to the window. The food was pretty good, and the portions were reasonable, as opposed to what Americans saw as the minimum entree size. "So what's on the plan for tomorrow?" he asked."I don't know about all of you," Nile said with a smile. "But I'm spending the day at the swimming pool."They decided after dinner to go to show down on the main stage, and they each marveled at the singing and dancing. Booker couldn't help but wonder how often someone was injured because of dancing while the ship rocked.After the show, they wandered out to the casino. Andy decided that she was going to take on the blackjack table, and Nicky and Joe hit the poker table. After a minute, Nile headed for the craps table. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he whispered to her. "The odds suck. You know that, right?"She shrugged. "I've never played it before, but I've always wanted to," she said. He watched as she bought some chips.He'd never enjoyed gambling for the sake of it. And since he couldn't even have a drink to make him more mellow about it, he decided to move to an area with seating and just people watch. He must have dozed off after a while, because he woke up when Nile shook him.Blinking up blearily, he saw that he'd been woken by Joe, and everyone else was standing around, openly grinning at him. "Tired, mon frere?" Joe asked, and taking a page out of Nile's book, Booker stuck his tongue out at him."Did you all win?" he asked. Andy and Joe nodded. Nicky sighed and shook his head. Nile just continued to look amused.The six of them headed back towards there rooms, and Booker barely managed to brush his teeth and get out of his slacks before he was asleep.When he woke the next morning, he realized that Nile was already gone. A glance at his watch showed that he'd slept to almost lunchtime, which would explain why he was starving. There was a note on Nile's bed that she had gone to the pool, so he pulled on his other swimsuit and wandered up, figuring that another burger sounded good.Nile and Joe were in the hot tub, and the rest of the family was lounging next to the pool when he got there. When Booker suggested lunch, Nicky went over to get the two in the water. Burgers and fries obtained, they grabbed a table and chatted in Arabic, which got them some odd looks. When Nile and Joe didn't look worried about them, Booker shrugged them off as well.After everyone had eaten, they went back to the pool, this time all of them getting into the water to just enjoy being together in a low stress environment. The afternoon passed, and Booker was glad to just spend time with the family, and very happy that Nicky only turned a little green a few times.They ate dinner at the buffet as well, since no one particularly wanted to get cleaned up, but finally they knew that they needed to go pack - according to the papers that their steward had left in their rooms, they'd need to be off the ship by 9. Joe had run down and grabbed some luggage tags so that they could put their suitcases in the hall.When they got back, Booker could hear Andy's shout of joy, and when he peeked in Andy and Quỳnh's room, he saw that her labrys had been returned.He left her and Quỳnh laughing, and went to the room he'd shared with Nile. As they packed, she cleared her throat. "I just want to say that I appreciate you following through on not drinking," she said, focusing on folding her t-shirts. "I know it was probably hard.""Eh, you were right," he said. "I had a better time than I would have if I'd been drunk."She looked up, her eyes lit up. "Does this mean you're going to stop drinking at home?" she asked, but she was grinning as if she knew it was a foolish question."Let's not be hasty, now," he said, but he walked over and gave her a hug. "Thanks for planning this. It was fun.""So the next time Quỳnh and I want to plan a vacation?" she asked but she was laughing."Get it past Andy and Nicky, and I'll go along as well," he promised.By the time they had their clothes laid out for the next day and their suitcases out in the hall, the rest of the family's bags were there as well. A long day of playing in the water had left Booker tired, and he fell asleep quickly, even as he heard Nile having a quiet conversation with someone.He woke up when there was a knock at the door, and found that Nile had ordered them breakfast. She didn't let him eat right away. Instead, Nile ordered him to get cleaned up and they went next door to Andy's room, where everyone was waiting, cups of coffee in hand, bagels and other pastries waiting to be eaten.No meal that they were all at would ever be described as "subdued" but they were fairly quiet, eating and drinking. Once everyone was done, they shouldered their day bags (and Andy her labrys case - she hadn't been willing to check it again) and headed out on the deck to wait for their number to be called.Nicky and Joe were leaning on each other on their corner of the couch, and Quỳnh was lying down with her head in Andy's lap. The six of them sat in comfortable quiet until their zone was called, and then it was a simple matter of walking off the ship and finding their bags. Booker was braced for customs, but they just scanned his face and he walked away.He shook his head. Looked like they had gotten a security expert involved just in time, since they were going to need help dealing with biometrics going forward.Their rented minivan was waiting for them, and they piled in. "Next stop, Georgia," Andy said, throwing the van in drive. "Someone call Copley, and see if he has anything for us."Vacations were good, but work would be good too.