Jim Hawkins was absolutely ecstatic. Having come home after his voyage on the RLS Legacy, he graduated from the military academy, as well as having helped his mother, Sarah Hawkins, rebuild the Benbow Inn 'one hundred times over', as he had once promised her. And now, on a mid-summer's day, he was helping his mother wait tables, balancing numerous trays of food precariously on his hands and arms.

"Jim, don't drop that!" Sarah warned, narrowing her eyes at her son. Jim rolled his eyes at her- sure, he was a tad clumsy, but he would never dare drop anything during a visitor's stay. Word of mouth was how they received customers, and after having saved all of space from a nuclear explosion on Treasure Planet, Jim sort of prided himself on knowing he was practically a savior. Of course, Captain Amelia, the woman who invited him on the voyage, made sure to never let it get to his head.

"Yeah, yeah," he laughed, ambling over to a table full of tentacled creatures, each one with at least two more tentacles than the last as Jim let his eyes dart between them, "Who ordered the third round?"

Cheers all around, and Jim busily slid glasses across the table, a greasy orange liquid sloshing over the rims and staining the wood of the table. Sarah shook her head- Jim could be such a handful, but he was helpful, so she really couldn't complain. She herself was busy swabbing down a table by the window, where Delbert Doppler and his new wife, Captain Amelia were sitting, their children perched carefully in their arms.

"I really think you've done a marvelous job with the place," Captain Amelia said, her cat ears twitching as she looked around, her blue eyes becoming thin slits as light streamed in from the window. Sarah smiled, rubbing one of the kids on the head. The alien yawned, nuzzling its furry head into Amelia's chest.

"Thank you Captain, but I-"

"Ms. Hawkins, what have we discussed numerous times?" the feline cut her off, "please, call me Amelia!" Sarah smirked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well, I've told you numerous times to call me Sarah, no?" Sarah retorted with a smirk. Amelia nodded, bouncing her children in her arms.

"Yes, of course," she said, "do we have a deal then?" She incline dyer head towards the innkeeper, raising an eyebrow. Sarah let out a chuckle, nodding as she answered, "I believe so- Amelia."

"Right-o!" Amelia exclaimed, opening her mouth to say more, but Delbert cut her off.

"How about you ladies negotiate later?" he suggested, holding a paw delicately to his throat, "I myself seemed to be parched."

"Coming right up, Delbert," Sarah said. Boots clicking on the wooden floor, she slapped the rag she was using across her crooked elbow, pushing a pair of swinging yellow doors into the kitchen.

Jim watched his mother go- he had had trouble eavesdropping on her conversation with the Captain and the Doctor, but no doubt it had something to do with formalities. It always did. As soon as he was finished with the tentacled family, he began to make his way over to the kitchen, deposit the platter he had been using to transport the drinks. The palm of his hand was sweaty from holding it aloft for so long. Delbert and Amelia sent nods and smiles his way, one of the pups in Amelia's arms growling as it dozed off to sleep.

"Everything set, Captain? Delbert?" Jim asked, tucking the tray under his arm.

"Ship-shape, Mr. Hawkins," Amelia nodded. Delbert was about to add when his phone began to chirp. Sheepishly, he dug it out of his pocket, flipping it open and pressing it to his floppy ear.

Captain Amelia shook her head, a smug grin on her face.

"Everything alright at work, dear?" she asked, Jim cocking his head in confusion. Delbert held a finger up to shush her, vigorously nodding his head. His glasses slid down the bridge of his nose, and he pushed them back, only to have them bounce down again.

"Really? You're coming here?" he said into the phone. Amelia and Jim exchanged glances as Delbert added quickly, "No, no! I mean you can certainly meet me here and we can negotiate the terms as to- oh…."

"Delbert?" Captain Amelia tried to cut in, only to receive a shoo of his hand.

"How's about you come here, then we can travel back there? It makes sense, doesn't it?" Delbert asked the anonymous entity that and seemed to enter the room, to block him off from his family and friends. Whoever it was, they must have had a serious issue. Sighing, Jim pulled up a chair from a nearby table, resting his arms and chin on the table top. The wood scraped his skin as the tray fell from his arm, clattering to the floor with a loud echo.

"Alright, alright, Mr. Thatch jus- just calm down!" Delbert nearly shouted, running a hand through his hair. They ignored the tray as it settled, nudging Jim's foot slightly as it settled on the floor. Finally, after an incessant amount of agreeing, Delbert snapped the phone shut, shoving it back into his pocket.

"Was that from work?" Amelia inquired.

"Who's Mr. Thatch?" Jim chimed in, resting his cheek on the table. His brown bangs fell in his eyes as he did so, obscuring Delbert slightly from his vision. He sighed. Even though his voyage to Treasure Planet was over, he missed it more than he thought he would.

"A colleague," Delbert said simply, fidgeting with the white kerchief tucked into his vest, the cloth puffing slightly as it peeked out the top.

"From work, I presume?" Amelia pressed, and Delbert nodded, taking a careful swig of his juice.

"Well, what did he want?" Jim asked.

"What did he want?! What did he want?!" came a small voice, echoing him shrilly. Jim jumped as the tray began to rise from the floor, a pale pink washing over the dull silver.

"Morph, buddy!" Jim laughed as the glob nuzzled against his cheek. Delbert licked his lips, nose sniffing the air. Amelia twitched her ears, which were flattened against her skull in confusion.

"Just, uh…. just a minute, Amelia, excuse me," Delbert said, carefully handing his three daughters- all with feline attributes, Jim noticed- to the boy, making a dash for the bathrooms. Sarah was making her way out of the kitchens with another round of perp juice as Delbert ran by, the door slamming so ferociously they thought it may as well fall from the hinges. A stunned silence hung momentarily in the air before visitors resumed whatever conversations they were having, the inn once more abuzz and excited.

With everyone so distracted, no one had noticed the entrance door creak open, the group that had just walked in. Morph, having grown bored with nesting in Jim's pocket, had decided to float over to his head, burying himself in the boy's brown hair, stretching so he could play with the braid tied at the nape of his neck, gurgling at the tuft poking from the hair tie at the end. Jim leaned over, placing the children safely in their strollers, blankets tucked up to their chins.

"Morph, stop it!" Jim suddenly found himself fidgeting in his chair, jumping as his hands roamed his body, trying to catch the little pink troublemaker. He was just about to grab him when Sarah plucked Morph off his jacket shoulder, the shifter turning into a puddle of pink goo in her palm.

"Aww, Mom!" Jim said sheepishly, "he wasn't doing anything, honestly-"

"You know, you really need to keep the little guy under control, Jim," Sarah said, letting Morph jiggle in her hand. Slowly, she lifted her hand until it was a few inches above her son's head. Jim followed with his eyes, widening them as Morph began to stretch.

"Morph! What are you doing?!" he asked, Morph merely emitting a high pitched laugh until he felt it- a wet splash on his scalp, burrowing into his hair once more.

"There we go! Safe and sound!" Sarah announced, "I'll check up on you two later," she gave Jim a quick peck on the crown of his head before strolling to the opposite side of the room, chatting up with an alien Jim knew to be Ms. Gunwoody as she served her juice.

"That woman is always drinking," Jim commented after a few minutes. Amelia chuckled, keeping an affectionate eye on her children, who snoozed quietly next to her.

"She might need a therapist at that rate," the Captain grinned. Jim nodded.

"So," he said, changing the subject, "what have you and Delbert been up to lately?"

"Oh, taking care of the children, doing doctor things- not those kinds of doctor things, mind you," Amelia said, adding with a smile, "of course, I still drive the RLS Legacy, so I would say everything is in tip top shape, wouldn't you, Mr. Hawkins?" Her ears twitched as they met eyes, and Jim nodded.

"Yeah, sounds great, Captain," he complimented. Lifting a glass of perp juice, he raised it a few inches in her direction, "here's to you and your new family, Captain." She inclined her head.

"Thank you, Mr. Hawkins," she said, "and to you and your mother as well. I'm sure it took a fortune just to rebuild-"

"Silver helped with that, actually," Jim cut her off. She was taken aback- she had never heard of a pirate expressing gratitude, in this case it would be charity. She shrugged. John Silver had escaped after the voyage, but she didn't really care. It was all behind her. She let her eyes trail around the room. A frog was lapping up a strew of flies buzzing in the air. A five tentacled alien was busy digging in to a bowl of leeches and Sarah was chatting it up with Ms Gunwoody, who no doubt was probably never going to stop talking.

It was a good life indeed, she thought, urning her attention back to the young man sitting across from her, watching as he played peek-a-boo with her children, who had evidently woken up from their nap. Morph was mimicking him, peeking out with enlarged eyes over the top of his head.