Chapter 6

Saint John lay in his hospital bed hooked up to an IV for pain and antibiotics. String, Dom, and Caitlin sat around in the room waiting for the doctor to come in and let them know when he could be discharged. Caitlin had changed into some old hospital scrubs she was loaned and had finally gotten dry. After thirty minutes, the doctor finally showed up.

"Well, when can we take him home?" asked String.

"Not until tomorrow afternoon," replied the doctor. "He was very lucky that all it required is stitches but I want to make sure that infection doesn't set in."

The news depressed Saint John. "There go my diving plans tomorrow morning."

"I suggest you stay out of the water for the next few weeks," replied the doctor. "You were lucky, the last shark bite patient I had lost his whole leg."

"Yikes," replied Dom. "But I wouldn't call forty six stitches lucky. I'd say this was the work of that damn cursed box."

String sighed. "You know, I don't believe in curses but it does seem rather odd that all these bad things started happening after Saint John caught it. I think we should dump it back under water where we found it."

"I think we should wait and see if anyone comes after it first," replied Saint John.

"Okay," replied Dom. "We'll keep it a little longer and see if anyone tries to get it back. After that, I say we put it right back where we found it."

String stood up and walked over to Saint John's bedside. "Do you need anything before we head back to the beach house?"

"No, I'm fine," replied Saint John. "You guys go on back and enjoy the evening. All I'm going to do is get a little sleep." He looked at String's face and continued. "Look, don't worry about me, I'm okay."

String smiled. "Okay," he replied. "Come on you two, let's get going."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Back at the beach house Dom settle down in front of the television. String grabbed a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses while Caitlin found an old beach blanket in one of the closets.

"Dom, we're going to head out to the beach and enjoy a little moonlight," said String with a grin on his face.

Dom looked up at them from the couch. "Oh, sure, sure," he replied. "You two kids have fun. I'm just going to finish watching this old movie before going to bed."

"Have a good night Dom," said Caitlin as she followed String out the back door and onto the beach.

"You know, I feel a little guilty going out and having fun while Saint John is laid up in the hospital," said String as he walked along the wooden pathway towards the water.

"Me too," replied Caitlin. "But, I think he'd want us to do something besides sit around the house and mope."

String smiled. "You're right," he replied. "It's a beautiful night and I am going to take advantage of it."

The two walked along the beach for quite awhile until they found a secluded spot away from any houses or people. Caitlin put down the blanket and String poured them each a glass of wine.

"This reminds me of our first time together," said String. "Only I was really nervous that night."

Sting could see Caitlin's smile in the glow of the moonlight. "Really?" she asked. "I couldn't tell."

String laughed. "That's good because I was scared to death."
"Why?" she asked.

"I didn't want to disappoint you," he replied. "We'd waited so long and to be honest, it was a lot of pressure."

"Well," she said. "I can tell you that since that night, I've never felt so happy and loved in my entire life. I love being with you."

"Me too," he replied.

String leaned over and kissed her. "We're taking a chance at getting caught out here you know," he said.

Caitlin laughed. "I guess sometimes you just have to be a little adventurous."

The two spent the rest of the evening making love under the moonlight and just laying and looking at the moon and stars. A few hours later they decided to head back to the beach house and get some sleep.

"I guess we should get back," said String. "I'm sure Dom's probably snoring away by now but just in case, I don' want him to worry about us."

Caitlin picked up the blanket and followed him back up the beach to the house.

As they got closer, something made String a little anxious. He noticed all the lights were still on in the house.

"I can't believe that Dom is still up," he said as they walked up to the back porch and opened the door.

"Oh my gosh," replied Caitlin as they walked into the door and saw that the whole kitchen and living room area had been ransacked. The box that the jewels had been in was lying on the floor and there was note left for them on the counter.

It said, "Bring the jewels to the pier at midnight tomorrow night or you'll never see the old man again."

"Damn," said String. "Well, we have our answer. They know we found the jewels."

"What are we doing to do?" asked Caitlin. "We don't have them anymore."

"We fake them out," said String. "Michael mentioned giving us knock offs when I called him back earlier today. It looks like we're going to need them."