"Jamie, when did Melanie get back? Last I heard she was out on the coast, working with the California Coast Guard."

Mikaela, Sam and Jamie were seated at a booth in the back of the bar, sectioned off from the rest of the patrons, overlooking the docks. Jamie was seated regally in an ornately, if ridiculously decorated chair, hung with Mardi Gras beads, bedazzled and bejeweled with cheap plastic overly large diamonds and draped with scarves. In her hand was a huge sparkly black and pink goblet emblazoned with the word 'Pimpette'. It was filled to the brim with strawberry margarita, which she was imbibing at an amazing rate.

Sam gazed longingly at the glass. He was almost emitting puppy-like whimpers, drool running down the left side of his chin.

Mikaela kicked him in the shin under the table, glaring at him, "Sam, quit it. You promised me that you wouldn't drink until your birthday. You're being pathetic."

"But Mikaela, come on, please …?"

"No."

"But Mikaela, I can't wait that long!"

"But nothing, Sam, it's only three more days. You'll live, trust me. You promised me, remember. And remember what happens if you don't keep your promise?"

Jamie had to smile at how fast the boy shrank back from the edge of the table. Her niece sure knew how to train them fast. "Wow Mikki, what did you threaten him with? Not going to work under his hood?"

Mikaela smiled, leaning back in her seat with her arms tucked behind her head and placed her feet up Sam's lap. She winked at Jamie, "Nope, something much much worse then a little sexual dry spell. Yoga."

Nina went skipping past, tipping some more margarita into Jamie's glass, tilting her head to the side in confusion, "What's so terrifying about yoga? We do yoga everyday, in the morning and sometimes at night, depending on how stressful the day was."

"Oh it's not the actual yoga; it's more like my yoga instructor. Poor Sam happens to be the current object of attraction to Hadrian. Hadrian commented once on Sam's 'gorgeous, well conditioned derrière.' Sam has been a little edgy around him since then." Mikaela shot a smug smile at Sam, who watched her with a sullen glower. "I made Sam promise to not drink anymore until his birthday, or he has to go to a whole month of yoga class with me. Which means he gets to spend plenty of time with Hadrian; he bats for the other team, if you remember. Hahahahahahaha!"

Sam let out an involuntary shiver, rubbing his arms. "He didn't just comment on the merchandise, he wanted a preview too." The color drained out of his face at an impressive rate. "He helped himself to a double handful. That is the first and last time I ever want to be that friendly with a fag- YEOWCH!"

Mikaela's metallic spiked heel planted with ferocity just above his hipbone against his side in the soft flesh and shoved him onto the floor with a loud thud, evoking an ear-piercing feminine yelp from Sam as his butt met the floor. The look that she gave him far dwarfed the one that he had received in Bumblebee. The temperature almost tangibly dropped in the surrounding area and Nina edged behind Jamie's chair.

Sam stood up, one hand rubbing his side and the other babying his hind end as he emitted an offended squeak, "Mikki-"

"You even come close to saying that 'word', or for that matter any similar word like that, about Hadrian, and you won't be getting anything for the next two months, mister." Mikaela narrowed her eyes menacingly at him, "And I mean anything, Sam. Not a single damn thing."

"He's ain't gonna to be coherent long enough to care, Mikki girl."

As Sam turned to face the new voice, his chin was met with a solid left hook that sent him sprawling across the floor. After his slide along the floor from was impeded by the wall, he gazed up at what hit him. His jaw hurt about as much as it had that time in the battle at the Pyramids. And considering that it had been fractured at that time, this was a surprising level of agony.

Standing in front of him, hip cocked at a jaunty angle, was a woman in tight blue jeans, black tooled leather cowboy boots, a cropped plaid button up top and a black cowboy hat. Her dark brown eyes were cold as she looked down on him, her left fist still clenched as her right hand shook her finger at him in a reprimanding manner.

"You don't get to talk 'bout my little brother like that, brat. Say something like that again and I'll take you out back and throw you a Texan-sized beating." Sam's eyes followed the fist with trepidation and his face quickly paled out.

Mikaela's face lit up happily as she leaped from her chair and jumped on the girl, "Riley!"

The cowgirl's face flipped to a smile as quick as a wink, an absolutely enormous smile spreading over her features, "Well, hey there little sister, what's shakin' bacon?" She wrapped her arms around Mikaela's waist and swung her around in a circle.

"Would you mind not pummeling my boyfriend into nothing? I still have to take him back home and I promised his mother he would be in one piece." She gave her best pout, sticking out her bottom lip and making it quiver, "Please Riley?"

The cowgirl gave her an incredulous look, her eyes shifting from Mikaela to Sam, who was cowering against the wall, eyes wide. "You gotta be pulling my leg, Mikki. He's with you?"

"Uh, yeah! I'm her freaking boyfriend! Jesus H Christ!" He cradled his jaw tenderly. Winced when his fingers made contact with the large knot that was quickly forming. "Forget this, Mikaela. I'm going outside to wait with Bee." Sam made a manly show of almost stomping his feet as he pouted away across the deck. He made it to the door and had just opened it when he was accosted a second time, by a matching pair of yellow and red blurs.

Red: "Whoa there buddy!"

Yellow: "Yeah man, ease back on those throttles."

Red: "We just got here and you haven't even introduced yourself."

Yellow: "You're going to have us thinking you don't appreciate our fine hospitality."

Each taking an arm, they towed him back over to the table and deposited him into his seat. Almost in a single motion, they flopped back into chairs across the table from him and leaned across, their eyes running up and down his form. They both grinned evilly and when they spoke, it was almost in turn, as though everything was practiced.

Red: "This guy is with you, Mikki?"

Yellow: "Would have never figured that. Seems skittish, very skittish."

Red: "But of course he would be, Mik likes to keep 'em in line."

Yellow: "Yeah, well, his lines need a little work."

Red and Yellow were dressed almost exactly alike; tight well-fitted black jeans that tucked into half-calf black heeled leather boots. Red and yellow silk scarves were threaded through respect belt loops and matched fitted jersey belly shirts. The red jersey had the words 'Team Ferrari' and the yellow jersey had 'Team Lambo'. On the backs were stylized the represented cars. The girls also had belly rings, with their chosen symbol in colored enameled dangling charms.

Riley leaned back in her chair, balancing back on two legs. She took a slow pull on her beer, her eyes watching him with a smirk playing around her mouth, "Bout as skittish as a long tailed cat in a room full of rockers." She laughed as his eyes followed her beer discretely as she set the bottle back on the table, "Lord Mikki, you ever water this boy? The way he's watching the bottle, I'd say he's so dry, if he were a tree in a drought, he'd be begging the dogs for a drop."

The twin girls (aka Red and Yellow) fell to the floor with simultaneous thuds, holding their sides as they laughed uproariously. The Texan looked nonplussed, picking up her beer and taking another long draught, "What in the Lord's name is wrong with the two of you? I swear, every time I open my mouth, you two have gigglin' conniption."

This was followed by more peals of laughter. "You're both crazier than shithouse rats." Tears were starting to flow now and Mikaela was starting to emit strangled giggles. Sam's face was turning an unhealthy shade of red as he clapped his hands over his mouth.

Riley shook her head at the group of them, "Y'all couldn't hit a bull in the ass with a bass fiddle some days, I swear."

Sam's head hit the table with a thud as a choked off guffaw of mirth escaped him. His condition wasn't helped when she leaned over and laid a hand on his should, asking concernedly, "You alright? You're sounding like a jackass' breedin' in a tin barn over there."

Sam leaped up out of his chair, dashing for the door and disappeared through the bar, hands still securely placed over his mouth as tears streamed from his eyes. Taking the front steps two at a time, he collapsed next to Bee, struggling to contain himself.

"Howdy, partner."

He lost it.

"Sam, what the hell?" Mikaela came down the step, dropping down next to him and rolling him over onto his side. He was gasping for breath and had gone a shade of red that would have been handsome on a well-cooked lobster. At the sight of his face, she started giggling again, even as she tried to pull him up into a sitting position. "Sam, come on, stop it. It's not that *snort* funny. Get up, you dork and shut *giggle* up!" She sat down next to him and he wrapped an arm around her waist, burying his face in her shoulder as he heaved for air. "At least you missed her parting shot. Otherwise I'd have a real hard time explaining to Ratchet that you choked to death while laughing."

He lifted his eyes up to meet hers, a brow raised in question.

"Nina, being the kill-joy that she is, explained to Riley that you and the twins where laughing at her, not with her. When she figured out what Nina meant she said that she was 'mad enough to eat barbed wire, spit nails and shit tacks.'"

He was off again.

A loud crash and a multitude of yelling greeted them from the front door of the bar and the twin girls came darting out, the one in yellow vaulting the rail while her sister leaped the length of the steps. They both hit the ground running and tore past Sam and Mikaela. The girl in yellow called back over her shoulder, "Get outta the way, she's on the warpath!"

The twin in red called back in agreement, "Yeah, you're on her hit list too! Get moving or she's gonna nail you to the wall!" (the last comment had Sam nearing the edge of hysteria again)

The Texan was down the stairs and moving at a surprising clip for such a sturdy built woman, with a beer bottle in one hand and holding on to the edge of her hat with the other as she thundered after the girls. She was shouting threats that included being hit to the ass-end of nowhere as well as having a date with a tall tree and a short rope. She gave a yell of triumph, thinking she had them cornered on the end of the dock.

The two continued on, taking a flying leap and hitting the water with a tremendous splash and two surprised shrieks of dismay.

"I'm not giving you guys any days off if you come down with something from this, understand?" Jamie was standing with one hip cocked, arms loosely crossed with her big 'Pimpette' glass tipping dangerously as she eyed the twins up looking the farthest thing from amused.

The two girls were curled up together in front of the partially open stove, sharing a ratty blanket as they shivered lightly. They had completely forgotten about the fact that it was just the beginning of summer and the water was still full of winter runoff. Very, very chilly winter runoff. As soon as they had hit the water, they had popped right back up and fought tooth and nail to be the first one up the dock ladder. Tex had hauled them both up and with one under each arm, strode back into the bar with the twins wailing like a pair of back alley cats.

Tex had stormed off into the back office behind the bar, grumbling and growling under her breath, mentioning something about having to balance out the accounts for the month. She had tossed the twins unceremoniously onto the ragged couch that sat off in a portioned off section of the deck and stamped off, her cowboy boots making quite the racket in the process.

As soon as asses had met sofa, Jamie had begun her reaming up the side of one twin and down the side of the other. Apparently she had this little talk about respecting other peoples cultures and euphemisms about once a week with them. All caused by their encounters with Tex and her broad spectrum of the Southern Culture.

Sam could hardly blame them. He hadn't laughed so hard in a long time; he still had a stich in his side that he held a hand to. Mikaela had had nearly as much trouble getting him composed as she did herself as a result of his hysteria. They had both had to support each other as they staggered up the wooden stairs, occasionally a strangled titter or hushed giggle would escape. While Sam was still hiccupping across the table from her, Mikki sipped delicately at her Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri.

Having finished with her tirade, Jamie sashayed her way tiredly back to her chair and all but collapsed into the throne. Taking a last long draw on her dwindling supply of margarita, she huffed and leaned back, shooting a final glare over at the shivering twins before turning her attention back to Mikaela. "So, now that we've had our wonderful dose of excitement, let's get back to the situation at hand." Her hand drifted down to scratch behind the ears of a big, aged red Doberman Pinscher. He had generous amounts of grey around his muzzle that was starting to creep up to his eyes and when he walked, it was stiffly, joints creaking and popping. "Hey there, old man." Jamie said affectionately. The dog groaned softly as he leaned into the caress.

"Well, I was just thinking the other day how long it had been since I had seen you." Mikaela said guiltily, "I know, I know, I should be concentrating on school and keeping my grades up. Which I am!" She added hastily as Jamie's eyebrow started to slowly creep up. "And I was thinking that with the shop doing well, with so much new business and now that my father is out of prison and working steady, that maybe I could do with a break." Here she paused, setting her glass down, tapping her chin thoughtfully with a well-manicured finger and gazing at Jamie with big innocent doe eyes, "And I thought to myself, what better way to take my vacation than to go visit my favorite aunt, Jamie, for a week?"

"For the record, I'm your only aunt, so damn right I better be your favorite, missy." She crossed her legs at the ankle, leaning back into her chair, hand still running over the dog's head as he panted noisily in the heat. "And just where were you planning on staying? I don't have room right now, with Nina living with me. The only place I could offer you is on the couch."

Mikaela smiled sneakily at her and turned to Sam, laying her head on his shoulder and wrapping her arms around his neck, "Sammy, baaabbyy," She drawled slowly, running one of her fingers down the side of his neck to draw shapes on his chest. A wicked smiled came to her when she felt him shudder and inhale a shaky breath.

"Y-yeah?" He gulped and shifted uncomfortably on the couch, sitting up a little straighter to relieve his 'discomfort'.

"Well, I was thinking that since it was your birthday in a few days, that maybe it would be nice to spend it here, just you and me. Relaxing on the beach in the sun, swimming all day, maybe take Jamie's jet-ski out for a spin. And her bar is open all day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. What do you think?"

"But she said that she didn't have space…"

Mikaela leaned up and kissed him lightly on the corner of the mouth, "I didn't ask that. I asked if you thought that it was a good idea."

"Of course I do!" He grinned at the thought of having his beautiful girlfriend with him for a whole week. A whole week of unsupervised alone time… a dazed look floated onto his face. Oh yeah, he thought it was a good idea.

He started when Mikaela sprang up, smiling at Jamie again and was seated over on her side of the couch again, "Good, I knew you would say that, so I took the liberty last week of renting out one of the little blue vacation homes just down the street on First Cove for the week. Happy birthday, Sam." She kissed him lightly on the cheek.