A/N: A little back story on this one. I originally wrote this as the end of chapter 26. I really liked this moment but I found that it didn't really fit at the end of Chapter 26 or at the beginning of Chapter 27. Despite that, I didn't really want to part with it because I thought it was fun, so I worked on it a bit more and decided to share it as a bonus chapter! Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 26.5

Scarlet and Wolf were relaxing in their living room, both had a book in their hands and a cat in their lap. The silence was broken by the familiar ping of an incoming comm. Both looked up to the netscreen to see:

INCOMING COMM FROM: Captain Carswell and the Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Finally Started Listening to Thorne and Became Best Friends

Scarlet jumped up, "What day is it?"

Wolf looked at his portscreen, "Oh no, I can't believe we forgot."

"We never forget!" Scarlet exclaimed.

"It looks like Thorne figured out how to change the group name again." Wolf responded, nodding to the screen.

"Yikes."

"Yeah," Wolf agreed, "He's clearly running out of ideas."

"Ugh," Scarlet plopped down next to Wolf. "We are never going to hear the end of this."

"Oh I think they will forget all about it once they see us."

Scarlet looked at Wolf, realizing what he meant. It had only been about a week since the incident at the pub and Wolf was still sporting a rather dark black eye.

"We could just not answer," Scarlet suggested. "If you don't want to talk about it."

"Nah it's fine. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe they won't even notice."

Scarlet laughed, "Yeah right." She picked up the remote and accepted the comm. Six familiar faces faded in to view.

"Did you guys forget about the monthly rampion crew chat?" Thorne asked immediately.

"Of course not! We were just getting in." Scarlet argued.

"Ha, yeah right!" Thorne jeered. "You totally forgot."

"Hold up," Iko interrupted. "Z, what happened to your face?"

"That was quick," Wolf whispered to Scarlet making her giggle.

"Stars, I know this is a cliche thing to say but I really don't want to see the other guy." Wolf rolled his eyes as Thorne's face moved closer to the screen. "He is alive right?" Thorne asked.

"They," Wolf corrected, "And yes, all three of them are still alive."

"That actually makes more sense, something about one guy landing a hit like that didn't quite add up."

"You are so rude," Cress elbowed Thorne out of the way. "You didn't even ask if he was okay."

"Cress is right," Cinder agreed, "Are you okay?"

"He's obviously okay," Thorne argued.

"No one was asking you," Cinder retorted.

"I'm fine," Wolf said, silencing them both. "This is nothing really."

"Yeah, you should have seen him on our first date," Scarlet responded, "He had two black eyes and almost killed a guy who had teeth in his head."

The group just stared at them for a moment.

"How did you two ever end up together?" Jacin asked.

"Agreed, any sane person would have been running for the hills at that point?" Iko followed up.

"To be fair, Scarlet isn't always the most rational," Cinder continued.

Scarlet frowned, "Hey!"

"She means it as a compliment," Kai quickly added.

Thorne quickly interrupted, "Obviously, even then, Scarlet could see past the tough guy exterior. She could tell that deep down Z was a big softie."

Scarlet smiled at this, knowing there was some truth to his words.

"You consider that our first date?" Wolf asked.

"Well you did invite me over," Scarlet replied.

"No, no, not happening." Thorne interrupted again.

"What?" They both asked.

"I can tell you two are about to start being cute," Thorne explained. "But you can do that on your own time, some of us also have news."

"Who has news?" Winter asked

"We do!" Thorne exclaimed. "Cress do you want to tell them?"

"Sure," Cress took over the majority of the screen, "We're throwing Daisy a birthday party!"

"You do that every year," Kai pointed out.

"Point taken, however this one is different!" Cress waited to see if anyone else had a snarky comment. After a second she continued. "Of course, we want you all to be there and we also know that you all could use a bit of a break, so…." She paused again, seeing that she had their attention. "We're picking everyone up and heading to the Caribbean!"

Iko and Émilie both let out squeals of delight causing everyone else to frantically push themselves from the screen or reach for the volume control.

"Are you trying to make us go deaf" Jacin complained loudly.

"So sorry," Iko responded, "We're just excited."

"And we are too!" Winter chimed in, "Ooh, Solstice will be so excited to see the beach."

"Does that mean you're all in?" Cress asked.

"Absolutely!" Scarlet replied. Everyone waited for the last of the crew to respond.

Cinder and Kai looked at each other. Kai finally spoke first, "Gee, it does sound fun"

"And we would really like to go" Cinder continued, catching on. "There's just so much going on."

Iko was quick to start the arguing, "You can't be serious."

"Yeah, what's more important than your niece's birthday?"

"And your friends?"

"There's no way you can't take a little time away"

And soon the voices were unintelligible as they all spoke over each other, explaining why Cinder and Kai had to go.

"This might have been a bad joke," Kai whispered to Cinder. "We should have known they'd get heated."

Cinder let out a small laugh, "The look on Thorne's face was totally worth it."

Wolf, not really saying much, noticed Cinder and Kai's private chat. "Guys I think we've been fooled."

Cinder and Kai looked back to the screen to find their friends staring at them.

"That was a joke right?" Thorne quickly asked.

"Of course!" Cinder explained, "I'm actually offended you all fell for it."

"Same," Kai agreed "What kind of monsters do you think we are?"

"Yay! I'm so glad you're all in!" Cress exclaimed, "Daisy is going to be so happy! This is, of course, a surprise. Daisy has no idea. We'll send you all the details as soon as we hang up"

"Which might actually be soon, we are supposed to pick up Solstice from Grandpa's in a little bit" Winter said.

"Besides," Iko added, "Who wants to follow that?"

"It's true, nothing really tops 'trip to the Caribbean with all your friends'" Émilie said.

"Except for bar fights," Thorne pointed out, earning another eye roll from Wolf.

"And we don't have anything as exciting as either of those things," Winter continued. "But please let us know if we can help with anything."

"Us too!" Cinder chimed in. "But first, please change the group name back."

They all burst out laughing.