I fell asleep after Ike left and only woke up when it was full dark and I heard a noise in my room. Groaning, because I knew if I sat up too fast I'd be forced to make a mad dash for the bathroom, I heard a sigh. A familiar sigh.

"Ike?" I managed to flip on the bedside lamp and say horizontal. "What time is it?" I blinked against the added light and saw him slumped in the chair he sat in to take off his shoes earlier. "Ike, is something wrong?"

"No, sweetheart, nothing's wrong." He was taking off his shoes again. His jacket was already gone, and the tie was quick to follow. Ike stood and unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt. "Can I join you, Liz?" He sounded as tired as I still felt.

"Of course," I smiled as he practically flopped into bed. "Tough night?"

His hand found mine and he brought it to his lips. "Like you wouldn't believe." We both turned so we were facing one another. His eyes looked tight, and I wondered what had happened from the time he'd said goodbye until this moment. "I told myself, if I could finish what needed to be done, I'd get to see you." I was still smiling, but I had a ball of worry curling inside of me and threatening to grow. "I paid you dad."

"How?" His fingers were brushing my tangled hair out of my face and I could almost hear his mind working out how best to explain.

When his thumb touched my lip, I kissed it automatically. "I haven't told you about how I managed to snag Molly's hand in marriage, have I?" I shook my head. "You've seen Meg, try to imagine their father." A male version of Meg, he doesn't sound like someone I'd care to meet. "And Pop and I told you all about how different my younger days were." I bit my lip at the memory of laughing with the two of them. "I think you can put together how excited Molly's dad was at the idea of her marrying me."

"Molly's father sounds like a boorish bully." My description made him chuckle.

"A bit." He let out a huff of air. "I asked for her hand in marriage, and he countered my offer." A negotiation for a wife? That sounds interesting. "I had to sign over the kids' rights to inheriting any of her father's wealth." My eyes went wide. "She believed in me, and we couldn't have imagined that she'd-" Pain burned bright on his face at the memory of her death. "I had a dream, and you're inside of it. Meg didn't know that when Molly died, all her portion of the family money reverted to Meg. It helped her make a better choice than this morning."

"What else did you have to give her?" It sounded like I was asking if he had to prostitute himself to her, but that wasn't what I wanted to know. "I only meant, how much of this dream I'm inside of does she own now?"

"I knew what you meant, Liz," he smiled and gave me a soft kiss. "Fifteen percent of my share. It's worth more than what she gave me, but I had to do something. He threatened that someone would die tonight if I didn't get him the money."

Par for the course for my father. "And now?"

"We pass the next hurdle when we get to it, Liz." I nodded. "As for RIGHT now, I want to hold you and watch you fall asleep." My smile returned. "I may not be able to wake up next to you yet, but I can take the look of you drifting off with me when I go."

"Since you want to witness me drifting off, should I leave the light on?" I was teasing him, but he surprised me with an affirmative.

"It doesn't bother you, does it?" I shook my head. "Then come here, let me hold you." He pulled me so I was lying cradled on his chest and I listened to his heart as I let my exhaustion take me away.

I woke up disoriented again. Right, I was at the hotel. Father's get together. Sickness and- I realized with a start that I was still lying on Ike's chest. I could see the hint of light beyond the closed curtains and swore to myself.

Rising up and feeling the urge to vomit strike hard and fast, I had to push off of him and run from the bed. He didn't budge as I watched at least part of the crackers I'd dared to eat come rushing back out of me. Flushing, brushing my teeth, and washing my hands, I came back into the room and shook my head. Still asleep.

"Ike," I was beside him, and I touched his arm. "IKE!" Still nothing, so I shook him and then he groggily came to.

"Liz?" He found me as his eyes finally relented and opened. "Come back to bed, Liz." He tugged my hand and I tumbled on top of him. "That's better." He was snuggling into me again, and I laughed to myself.

"Isaac, my love?" He grunted in response. "It's morning." Another grunt. "You're in MY bed." I felt him nod above me. "Where SHOULD you be, Ike?"

And he finally heard me. Really heard me. "Shit." He sat bolt upright and I felt the vertigo hit me as I went along for the ride. "Liz, it's morning."

"Yes, I know, I just told you." I was trying very hard to keep down the bile that I felt rising. Finally it was too much and I pushed off from him and ran back to the bathroom. Seriously, would this ever be over?

I felt him at the bathroom doorway, since my head was almost inside the bowl of the toilet. "Sweetheart, can I get you anything?" I could hear his clothes rustling so I knew he was getting put back together. I shook my head, not trusting that my time becoming acquainted with the porcelain bowl was over.

He waited until I was finished and on my feet. And as he kissed my freshly brushed mouth, we heard a knock on my hotel room door, and a voice that had us both freeze in our tracks.

"Liz?" Vera called, quiet, but loud enough for us to hear. "Liz, are you awake?" Damn it. "Please answer the door, I just found out you checked in yesterday and I need your help." I hoped Ike would have a long chat with his employees about guests' privacy after this.

I did something I probably shouldn't have, but I panicked. I pushed Ike into the bathroom and shut the door. Then I opened the locked door and hoped that my face reflected how sick I felt.

"Vera? What's wrong?" She looked as panicked as I'd felt when I heard her voice while her husband was reacquainting himself with my tongue. She shocked me by brushing past me into my room. Where did her manners go? She was wringing her hands and looking like a caged animal.

"Oh, Liz, I don't know what to do." I waited, since I wasn't supposed to know that Ike hadn't gone home last night. "It's Ike, he wasn't in bed when I woke up, and I stayed up half the night waiting for him. His car is here, but he's not."

I watched her pace, praying once my eyes noticed that Ike had only partially redressed himself because sitting in the middle of the table was his tie and under the chair sat his shoes, that she was too distraught to notice. Damn it.

"Vera," I got her attention on me, still standing by the door. "Did you check his office? My classmates used to talk about how their fathers sometimes became so engrossed with their work that they'd fall asleep in their offices." Actually, what my classmates had said was that it was their fathers' favorite excuse when they were seeing their mistresses, but needs must. She shook her head. "Go check, and give me a moment or two to get myself presentable and I'll meet you in the Rivera for breakfast. You can eat, and we'll figure this out, alright?" She nodded, looking like she was going to burst into tears. "Stay calm, Vera, until we know something is wrong."

"You're right, Liz." She straightened her back and forced herself back into the calm woman I'd first met. "I'll check his office. He's been working so hard that I'm sure what you said happened. He might even be upstairs already, getting a shower and dressed for a new day." I smiled reassuringly at her and opened the door. "Thank you, Liz," she offered, and I prayed that as she gave me an air kiss on the cheek that her extra tall height didn't put Ike's discarded clothing in her direct line of sight.

Ike was grinning like a complete fool when I opened the bathroom door. "I have never seen you ruffled before, Liz, that was pretty interesting."

I raised an eyebrow as he wrapped his arms around my waste and stared down at me. "I'm sick, I don't think straight when I'm sick." I sniffed. "And if I wasn't so ill, I'd have noticed that you're in your socks and your tie is over there with your shoes." I gestured to the table.

"I could have popped out of the bathroom and we could be done with the hiding." I shook my head and leaned into his body. His hands were rubbing my back and I was loath to let him go.

"You have to go," I truly hated it, but this wasn't the right way. "She deserves better than this."

"Hey," I looked up at him. "So do you." He kissed me again, reminding me of where we'd been interrupted. "I love you, Liz, I do and we WILL fix this." I nodded, feeling more and more uncertain.

"Get dressed, Ike." I sat on the edge of the bed and watched. "I have to get ready too. Breakfast sounds," I could actually feel the blood leave my face at the thought of it. "Enjoyable."

"Want me to distract her, that might get you off the hook." I squinted at him wondering how he planned to distract her. "Not that way, Liz." He shook his head. "She's been making noise about wanting to go back to dancing." My shock must have been easy to read. "Yeah, my thoughts exactly. She's spoiling for an argument, this can be the catalyst."

"Actually, that sounds like a good idea." I was tired again, from standing up and having nothing in my stomach, no doubt. "I plan on having another nap."

"Get back in bed, sweetheart, rest." I did, because I felt like I'd run miles. "The next time I wake up next to you, I promise it won't end up like this." My smile at the thought of a day like that made his own return. "I'll check in later, alright?" I weakly nodded. He kissed me on my forehead, I lost the battle to keep my eyes open to watch him go, and was out completely before the door shut behind him.

The ringing phone woke me. Groaning, I rolled over and answered it. "Hello?"

"Elizabeth?" I rolled my eyes at the sound of my father's voice. "Are you ready to come home?"

"No." I turned to hang up again, but I heard him speaking. "What was that?"

"Come home, Liz, we need to talk." Another eye roll.

I sighed loud enough to get my point across. "I finally got to rest, Father, I don't want to leave this bed." I heard him chuckle. "What now?" I was irritated and it came through loud and clear.

"Come home." An order, I knew it. "Now."

I walked through the front door not an hour later and saw him lounging by the pool. Maybe I could smash something heavy onto his head and convince everyone a tile fell off the roof. Then I wouldn't have to deal with him ever again. That was a pleasant thought that carried me outside, with a real smile on my face.

"Don't you look happy?" Yes, because I'm imagining your brain matter coating the patio. "How was your night, did you sleep well?"

"I slept like the dead," my smile grew, like I'm picturing you right now. "Why do you ask?"

"You didn't hear?" I waited, clearly he was bursting at his seams to break some news to me. "I guess having Ike to yourself for a full night, even if it did come with a surprise visit from the little wife-" He stopped and took in my tiny stature. "OK, she's not so 'little' compared to you, but I could see why you might have missed it." What did I miss? "They found a body in the pool this morning."

"And?" The boredom I felt was evident. "Somebody drowned because they took a swim after having too much to drink." I shrugged. Accidents happen when you're unintelligent.

"Liz, honestly, do you think I'd share if it were an accident?" I rolled my eyes. "It was the burglar. This clown that did diving tricks for the tourists." I vaguely recalled someone in a stupid suit on the diving board during one of my lunches with Vera. And I think that she had mentioned the break-ins.

"What a tragedy." I sighed, and leaned against the wall. "Can I go now?"

He shook his head and sighed. "You are such a disappointment sometimes, Elizabeth. You're not curious, you don't ask questions to get more information, you just look down your nose at us little people."

I tilted my head to study him. "I don't ask questions because unlike my father, 'The Butcher', I don't thrive on gore and other people's pain. I don't find a 'diving clown' throwing themselves off the roof after he'd burglarized the building all that interesting, so I don't want details. It's morbid." I smiled at him and decided to share what had made me smile so happily upon my return to his presence. "I think I'm more like you than you think. Do you want to know the true source of my happiness as I walked out here to be forced into this unbearable conversation with you?" He smirked, thinking that I was innocent and tame. "I was wondering how to bash your head in and make it look as though a roof tile had done the damage. I was thinking how beautiful the insides of your skull would look splashed across the Spanish tile that makes up this patio. And I was wondering, after I'd done this gruesome act, how I'd manage to act the part of a grieving daughter when all I'd really want to do is dance on your grave?"

I turned and walked away, because for once, I'd rendered him speechless.