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Its barely breaking light when Roy is woken by a small body leaping onto the bed beside him. Roy may be worn-out from the late afternoon sightseeing they engaged in when they arrived in the day before, but Lian certainly isn't.

"C'mon daddy get up. It's daytime already…" She tugs on his arm, "We hafta build sandcastles and collect shells and Uncle Dick is gonna climb that coconut tree and get me a coconut and…." talking non-stop and determined to get her fathers attention, Lian scrambles over him oblivious to the sharp intake of breath he gives as one small, boney knee connects painfully with one of his more sensitive body parts.

Roy groans, rolls onto his side and curls into a ball to protect his vital assets from further assault and pulls the pillow over his head trying to block out the excited chatter coming from his little girl.

Lian's not easily distracted from her intention of having him get up, she grabs a handful of pillow and begins tugging hard. "Daa-dy. Get up." she whines, pouting as she plops back onto her bottom when her hold on the pillow slips

"Ten more minutes. Just give me ten more minutes' princess…..Please?"

There's a delighted squeal from the little girl and Roy feels the bed shift as her weight leaves it. He pulls the pillow back just enough to crack one eye open and stare gratefully up at Dick who is engaged in a tickle attack on the little girl that now hangs upside down in the acrobats arms.

Dick's laughing almost as much as Lian is when she calls through the giggle fit for him to stop. He helps her to climb upright in his arms, grins at her and gives into the temptation to plant a kiss on her forehead, before he turns to her father who is watching with sleepy bemusement. He nods at the red-head. "You have your ten minutes…and I own your soul."

Roy gives a sleepy chuckle. "You can have it man, I've used up all the brownie points and what's left ain't worth owning."

"The young lady and I shall be breakfasting on the beach." Dick say's in his best 'Alfred' voice as he leaves the room.

"And climbing coconut trees to get me coconuts." Lian chimes in happily.

"Thanks man." Roy mumbles. His words go unheard the door closes behind them as they leave.

Ten minutes later Roy is blissfully asleep and Dick and Lian are sitting on the beach eating a bowl full of Cocoa Puffs each and basking in the early morning sun.

"Are we gonna go fishing today Uncle Dick?"

"At some stage princess."

"At what stage Uncle Dick?"

"I'm not sure. We'll have to see what your dad says when he wakes up."

"Yeah, daddies real tired isn't he?"

"A bit. We did a lot of walking yesterday, and you…" Dick playfully presses the little girl's nose with his pointer finger. "…had lots of piggy-back rides to wear your dad out."

"I know. Also, I heard Uncle Ollie."

Dick frowns "Uncle Ollie?"

"Yeah. When we were staying at Uncle Ollie's house daddy and Uncle Ollie were in the den talking…." Lian's brow creased in concentration. "I think daddy was cranky cause he sounded cranky. Sometimes Uncle Ollie just tries his patience" she shrugged, missing the grin on Dick's face at her choice of words that sounded exactly like something her father would say. "I don't know why…but anyway, I heard Uncle Ollie say daddy needs to stop stressing and go get laid or something…Get laid means lay down and have a rest doesn't it Uncle Dick?

Dick snorted, turned a little red as his brain stumbled for the right answer, then lied."Uh…yeah sweetheart. That's exactly what it means."

"That's probably why he doesn't want to get up early."

"Probably." deciding to quickly change the subject, Dick picked up the empty bowls.

"Tell you what, let's put these in the sink and go get ready to take a stroll along the beach."

"And get more shells. Yeah babe!"

"Oh look Uncle Dick, this one has a little star on it!" Lian cries excitedly as she holds up a small round shell.

Dick drops to one knee beside her and takes her hand in his as he inspects her find. "It's called a sand dollar' Lian."

The little girl looks puzzled. "A sand dollar? Why's it called that? It doesn't look like a dollar."

"Well, some people say it's the money mermaid's use." Dick explains.

Lian frowns as she studies the sand dollar carefully. "Uncle Garth never told me that mermaids use money."

Dick sits down beside the five year old. He stretches his legs out in front of him and wriggles his bare feet to shake some of the sand from between his toes. "Well, it's up to a person's imagination if they want to think that's what they are."

Lian leans against Dicks shoulder, still fascinated with the sand dollar. "What are they really?"

"Their real name is, Echinarachnius parma and they're related to sea urchins and starfish."

Lian's brow furrows in concentration. "Echi…echi…"

"Echinarachnus parma." Dick repeats slowly, and he can't help grinning at the look on the little girls face.

Lian rolls the creatures name around in her head for a minute. She makes a couple of small movements with her mouth, just trying to get the feel of the words--then says, "You're silly Uncle Dick!"

"Who's silly?"

With a start Lian looks up at the man who has seemingly appeared out of nowhere. "UNCLE WALLYYYYY!"

"Hey squirt!" Wally laughs as he suddenly finds himself with an armful of five year old girl.

"UNCLE WALLY, UNCLE WALLY….I missed you heaps!"

"Ditto short stuff."

"Hey buddy…" Dick pushes himself to his feet brushing off the sand from his jeans he'd rolled up into makeshift shorts. "I thought you couldn't make it till tomorrow?"

"Well that was the plan." Wally grinned and pressed his nose to Lian's. .."Twins came down with chicken pox, Linda's had it…" He looked at Dick and shrugged. "I haven't, so Linda chased me."

Lian is so excited, she can't stay still and a rapid flow of questions spill from her. "Are you coming fishing, Uncle Wally? We're going fishing. I'm gonna catch a big fish, but I'm gonna let it go again. Are you going to catch a fish too? Uncle Dick brought fishing rods and all kids of stuff. We can go now. Let's go now…" the little girl wriggles out of Wally's arms and starts to run down the beach.

"Whoa, slow down Princess. Let's talk to your father first." Dick calls out.

The dark-haired angel returns, takes hold of Wally's hand in one of hers, and Dick's in the other and determinedly tugs them along behind her as she heads back the way she just came. She marches towards the cabin and pouting disapprovingly as she tries to hurry the men along. For the fastest man alive her Uncle Wally sure walked slowly.

Wally chuckles at her enthusiasm and glances over at Dick who's fallen into step beside them grinning happily. "So, where is Roy anyway?"

Lian is quick to answer. "He's getting laid Uncle Wally."

She frowns as she's jerked to a sudden stop and glares over her shoulder at the two men who are making strange choking sounds. "Fishing." she reminds them in a frustrated voice.