Previously on Full House…

"Danny!" came a shrill cry from the bathroom.

Danny bolted to the bathroom and opened the door to find Vicky clutching the counter with one hand and her stomach with the other.

"Danny, I think something's wrong!"


Danny wiped some sweat from his brow and tapped his foot nervously as he squeezed his wife's hand. He looked up at the ceiling and mouthed a few desperate words of prayer. Danny Tanner had never been an overly religious man, but his late wife was raised Catholic so he grew accustomed to attending services on Christmas Eve and Easter, as well as saying grace over holiday meals. Then, when Pam was in the hospital fighting for her life, Danny had prayed the most genuine prayer he'd ever uttered and ever would utter, until now.

"Please don't take her from me. Don't take her from them. They need her. I need her. Please don't take her."

Those words he'd uttered so desperately seven years ago almost to the day raced through Danny's mind as he bit his lip and clenched the fist of his free hand. Please don't take her.

"Earth to Danny!"

Danny blinked a few times and snapped his head up to look at his wife, who was waving her hand in front of his face.

Vicky chuckled softly. "Thought I was going to have to call someone in to revive you there for a minute!"

Danny shook his head a few times. "Oh, sorry, Honey. I was just -"

"You're having flashbacks again, aren't you?"

Danny nodded solemnly. "Just sitting here with you like this -" Danny gestured around the room where Vicky sat on a gurney surrounded by grayish pink curtains to give them some semblance of privacy in the communal medical center aboard the ship. "It just brings me back to being in the hospital with Pam."

Vicky took Danny's hand in both of hers, squeezing it for comfort. "Sweetheart, you really should think about talking to somebody about this stuff. It's normal to be worried in situations like these. I know I am! But you've been acting this way the whole time that I've been pregnant, and it only seems to be getting worse! You have trouble sleeping, you're constantly worrying about me and the baby and the girls. You've started vacuuming the fridge twice a day now! I don't blame you for being scared after all that you've been through, but there comes a point where worrying can get in the way of functioning normally in everyday life. I just want to make sure you know that there's no shame in getting help. It's completely normal."

Danny nodded. "I know it is. You know, I went through this with Stephanie a few years ago when she had some separation anxiety. Jesse and Joey told me the same thing you did, and it helped! That therapist gave us some really good advice. But it's one thing to ask for help for your kid. Getting help for yourself is a different story," Danny mused.

Vicky rolled her eyes at her husband. "You men and your pride!" She gave an exasperated sigh. "But I do understand where you're coming from. Just promise me you'll think about it, okay?"

"I'll call the doctor's office as soon as we get home," Danny promised.

"Good," replied Vicky. She reached over and patted the empty space next to her on the gurney. "Now, come here."

Danny did as she instructed and stood from his chair to join her. As he sat down he laughed slightly as he noticed that while his own feet nearly touched the ground, his wife's legs dangled in mid-air. He gave Vicky a playful nudge and she returned the favor. Satisfied that the tension was sufficiently broken for the moment, Danny lovingly wrapped his arm around Vicky's shoulders, and she giggled as she leaned into his embrace.

"You ok?" Danny asked, placing a protective hand over Vicky's stomach.

"Better," she assured him. "It comes and goes."

"Where does it hurt?"

Vicky rubbed her stomach on the left side. "Right about here."

Danny moved his hand on top of hers. "Well, he's still kicking just as much as he usually does, so that's a good sign. He's getting strong!" Danny observed. Vicky smiled and nodded.

The curtain rustled and a young man in burgundy scrubs pulled it open. "Hi! I'm Scott Bradshaw, chief EMT on staff. And you must be -" Scott glanced at his clipboard. "Vicky. Vicky Larson. Is that right?"

Vicky nodded, ignoring her husband's obvious disgruntlement with the fact that she had yet to officially change her last name.

"Okay, Vicky. Well, I'm just gonna take another quick look at your blood pressure here." Scott wrapped the blood pressure cuff around Vicky's arm then glanced at his watch as he squeezed the bulb. He checked the reading on the cuff and nodded affirmatively. "Yeah, your blood pressure is pretty high," he commented. "It's not so dangerously high that we need to transfer you, but we're gonna give you some medication to keep it at bay for the rest of the weekend, and I would advise you to stay on bed rest for the rest of the cruise. But you're not having contractions and the baby seems to be doing just fine."

"What about the abdominal pain?" Danny asked.

"Right. So the abdominal pain that you reported as well as the headaches and dizzy spells are all symptoms of your blood pressure being that high. With medication and bed rest, you should be fine. We're going to fax the reports to your doctor in San Francisco so they can follow up when you get home. My guess is that they're going to advise you to stay on bed rest for the time being, but I couldn't say for sure. Are there any more questions I can answer for you now?"

Vicky shook her head. "No. Thank you."

Scott shook both of their hands and handed Vicky a slip of paper. "No problem! Anna should be able to take care of you over there," he informed them, pointing to a young blonde woman in the same burgundy scrubs sitting behind a pharmacy counter on the other side of the room.

Danny helped his wife down from the gurney, keeping one arm out to steady her in case of another dizzy spell, and they retrieved her medicine from the pharmacy counter before returning to their room.


Meanwhile, DJ, Kimmy, Stephanie, and Gia were sitting down to lunch. Kimmy, in particular, struggled to decipher the Spanish menu.

"Arroz con pollo," she read. "Why would they serve chicken with arrows?"

Gia struggled to stifle a giggle and Stephanie elbowed her in the ribs, though she was close to laughing herself. DJ gave both of the younger girls a warning glare.

Luckily the waiter arrived just moments later with a tray of water glasses.

"”Bienvenidos a Rosita's!" he exclaimed, and then in English, "Welcome to Rosita's! My name is Julio. What can I get you lovely ladies for lunch?" he asked.

Julio looked to be about Stephanie and Gia's age, and Stephanie couldn't help but notice that he was looking in her direction when he referred to them as "lovely ladies". Gia must have noticed as well because she wasted no time in turning on the charm.

"Well, Gracias, Julio! You know, I couldn't help but notice your accent. You're not from here, either, are you?" Gia remarked as she raised her eyebrows flirtatiously.

Julio laughed. "Well, kind of. My dad grew up here, but he met my mom while he was studying abroad for a year in California. So I was born in Fresno, but we moved back here when my Abuelo Pedro died to help my Abuelita run the restaurant."

"I'm so sorry about your Abuelo," Gia sympathized, tilting her head and putting on her best puppy dog eyes. This time it was Stephanie who struggled not to laugh at her friend's blatant attempt at flirtation.

Unfortunately for Gia, Julio seemed oblivious to her attempts as he nodded and thanked her politely before taking their lunch orders. When he got to Stephanie, she suddenly felt flustered and struggled to articulate her order, despite opting simply for the chicken tacos. She could feel her cheeks growing warmer as Julio looked at her expectantly with his chestnut eyes and when she looked back, Stephanie became lost in thought for the slightest moment as she imagined running her fingers through his dark chocolate curls.

"I'll have the, uh, tacos con pollo," she finally stammered, handing Julio the menu and quickly looking away.

Once Julio was gone, Gia put her hand up to her face and leaned in toward Stephanie.

"What was that about?!" she whispered sharply.

"I don't know!" Stephanie shot back. "He looked at me and I just - " Stephanie shrugged. "I don't know," she repeated.

"Having second thoughts about Rusty, are we?" Gia accused with a mischievous grin.

Stephanie quickly shook her head. "No, it's not that! Or maybe it is! I don't know. I guess - " Stephanie sighed. "I guess I have a little crush on Julio," she finally confessed.

Gia grinned boastfully, seemingly proud that her goodie-two-shoes friend would admit to having feelings for someone other than her steady boyfriend.

"Aha! So you admit it!"

Stephanie rolled her eyes. "Fine! I admit it. I think a guy other than my boyfriend is cute. But that doesn't mean anything!"

"What are you two hens squawking about?" Kimmy asked.

"Stephanie's got a cru-ush!" Gia sang tauntingly.

Stephanie buried her head in her hands, which only egged the other girls on further.

"Stephanie and Julio sittin' in a tree!" Gia sang.

"K-I-S-I-N-G!" Kimmy finished for her.

Stephanie propped her head up to look at Kimmy. "Kimmy, 'kissing' has two - oh, never mind!" She waved her hand and put her head back down, causing Gia to erupt in a fit of laughter.

Once the girls finished their lunch and Julio returned with the check, Gia took advantage of the opportunity to play Matchmaker.

"So, Julio, I'm sure that a handsome and hardworking young man such as yourself must be very popular with the young ladies around here. Does that bother your girlfriend at all?"

Julio laughed awkwardly, glancing over at Stephanie. "Well, actually, I spend so much time working that I don't really have time to date."

Stephanie shot her friend a glance as if to say "I told you so", but as Julio walked away from the table, Stephanie was hit with a sudden burst of courage and called out "Julio, wait!"

Julio spun around on his heels. "Yeah?"

"I'm - uh- doing this project for school and I need to find, um, a pen pal from another country! Is there any chance I could have your address?"

Julio grinned. "Sure! Well, my parents wouldn't be happy about me giving out our home address, but you can write to me here at the restaurant," Julio suggested, and Stephanie nodded eagerly, handing him a napkin and a pen.

Stephanie grew anxious as Julio seemed to be taking a long time to write down his address, but when he finished writing he looked up at her and smiled.

"I can't wait to hear from you!" Julio told her excitedly, handing back the pen and napkin. "Oh! What was your name again?"

"Stephanie. I'm Stephanie Tanner."

"Well, Stephanie Tanner, it was nice to meet you," said Julio with a cheeky grin before he walked off.

"Wow, Steph! Good thinking with the pen pal thing. I almost believed you!" Gia praised. "So are you actually going to write to him?"

"I just might!" Stephanie responded smugly.

DJ glared disapprovingly at her little sister. "Steph, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Stephanie followed DJ a few feet away from the table where they were sitting.

"Stephanie, what are you doing?!" DJ exclaimed. "You already have a boyfriend!"

"Deej, what's the big deal? All we're doing is writing letters back and forth. It's not like I'm ever gonna see him again!"

DJ scoffed. "Stephanie, I saw the way that you just looked at him. Clearly, you like him as more than just a pen pal, or even a friend. I know I'm only your big sister and I can't tell you what to do, but just think about how Rusty would feel if he knew what you were doing. Or how you would feel if Rusty started writing letters to another girl!"

Stephanie frowned. "Well, you're right! You can't tell me what to do, and I don't see anything wrong with having a pen pal! I'm writing a letter to Julio!" Stephanie exclaimed defensively.

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

The two sisters angrily sauntered back to the table. Before they had a chance to sit down, Jesse came running up to them, out of breath.

"Uncle Jesse, what's wrong?" Stephanie asked.

"Well, we took the twins back to put them down for a nap, and your dad left this note on our door that said he had to take Vicky to the medical center! It sounds like it might be pretty serious. You girls better come with me."

"Oh, Mylanta!" DJ cried, and the four girls got up to follow Jesse back to the boat.


"You okay in there, Joey?" Michelle inquired as she poured another bucket of sand on top of him and patted it down.

"Actually, my nose kind of itches. Could you give it a scratch for me, Michelle?" He requested.

Michelle obliged, quickly scratching Joey's itch before returning to her nearly completed masterpiece. After covering Joey's entire body in a flat base of sand, she had set to work filling bucket after bucket to build a three-tiered castle on top of Joey's stomach.

"Hold still, Joey! I'm almost done," she instructed.

Joey nodded as best as he could while being buried up to his neck in sand.

"Don't worry, Michelle! I won't let you down. Oh no! I think I'm about to -"

Michelle hurried to put her finger under Joey's nose to prevent a single sneeze from destroying hours of hard work. Once Joey relaxed, Michelle stood up to place the top tier on her sandcastle.

"Joey!" Jesse called out as he ran up the beach with the girls at his heels.

Startled, Joey jumped up and sent sand flying all over the beach.

"Joey!" Michelle echoed.

"Sorry, Michelle! We'll rebuild it later, I promise!" Joey assured her before turning to Jesse.

"Jess, what's wrong?"

"It's Vicky. She was having some kind of pain and Danny took her down to the medical center," Uncle Jesse explained.

"Oh my God!" Joey exclaimed. "Is the baby okay?"

Jesse briefly lowered his head and bit his lip before answering. "I'm not sure. But I thought we should probably all be there when they get back, just in case."

Joey nodded. "Good idea. Come on, Michelle. We better get inside. Who knows how long it's going to take to wash all of this sand off?" Joey shook his head, sending small clouds of sand flying in all directions.

Jesse instinctively covered his head with his hands. "Watch the hair, huh?"


Back in their room, Danny was taking extra care to make his wife comfortable on bed rest, much to her dismay. After fluffing one of the two pillows behind Vicky's back for the umpteenth time, he went to readjust the pillow propping up her legs.

"Danny, Sweetheart, I appreciate that you're trying to make me feel more comfortable, but don't you think five pillows is a little bit much?" Vicky asked.

Danny glanced around at the fort-like structure of pillows surrounding his wife.

"Oh, sorry, Honey! I guess I got a little carried away," He realized.

Vicky laughed. "Well, you wouldn't be the Danny Tanner I married if you didn't!"

Danny frowned. "And what is that supposed to mean?" he demanded.

"It means that I married a kind, considerate, and loving man from whom I would expect nothing less." Vicky grabbed Danny's chin with one hand and gave him a smooch followed by a few reassuring pats on the cheek.

Danny smiled, his cheeks growing nearly as flushed as they had after their first kiss. As he locked eyes with Vicky, he thought of the highly-accomplished, ambitious career woman he met two years prior who had sacrificed the job opportunity of her wildest dreams so they could spend their lives together, and the woman who would now likely have to put her career on hold once again for the next three months to protect the health of their unborn baby. Danny was flooded with a sense of gratitude so strong that he could barely eke out the three words required to express it.

"I love you," he said just above a whisper.

"I love you too, Sweetheart. Now could you hand me my water bottle?" Vicky asked, growing impatient with her husband's sappy antics.

"Oh, sure!" Danny obliged, handing his wife her bottle of water and a pack of crackers from the nightstand behind him. He then put a movie on the TV and settled in next to his wife on the bed.

The couple had nearly dozed off when there came a knock, or rather a repeated banging, at the door. Danny sleepily dragged himself out of bed to answer it. He opened the door to find Jesse, Joey, and the girls huddled together in the hallway.

"Is everything okay?" Jesse whispered, not wanting to scare the girls in case the situation was worse than expected.

Danny stepped out into the hallway so as not to wake his wife, who hadn't been phased by the banging on the door.

"Everything is fine," Danny reassured them. "Vicky's blood pressure was a little high so they gave her some medicine and put her on bed rest, probably until she has the baby," Danny explained.

"Is the baby okay?" DJ asked nervously.

Danny wrapped his arm around his oldest daughter's shoulder. "Yeah, the baby's fine, Deej. Don't worry."

"Man," said Joey, "it's too bad that Vicky's going to be stuck in bed for the rest of our vacation."

"Well, listen, I don't want that to stop the rest of you from having fun," said Danny. "You all go off and do your own thing and I'll stay here with Vicky, okay?"

DJ grinned. "I've got a better idea!" she exclaimed. She motioned for her sisters and friend to huddle in close as she whispered a plan of action into their ears. Stephanie and Michelle nodded excitedly and ran off, having clearly just been sent on a mission of some kind. DJ then leaned over and whispered something to her uncle, who nodded and smiled.

"Come on, Joey!" Jesse motioned for his best friend to follow him. "We'll be back in an hour!" Jesse informed Danny, and they too took off.

"Deej, what are you doing?" Danny asked suspiciously.

"Trust me on this one, Dad. You're gonna love it!" With that, she and Kimmy took off.


The entire crew returned an hour later, this time with Becky and the twins in tow. When Danny opened the door this time he found his family had managed to conjure up an entire fiesta with a mere hour's notice, complete with room service, games, decorations, and even sombreros for each member of the family.

Danny stood for a moment with his mouth agape, then grinned. "DJ, how did you do all of this?"

"Well, Jesse and Joey took care of the room service, and Michelle and Stephanie borrowed some games from the kids' activity center. And Kimmy and I convinced the event coordinator to let us borrow some decorations!"

"Oh, and I found all of these sombreros in a cute little shop in the village!" Becky exclaimed. She placed one on Danny's head.

"Can we come in?" Joey asked.

Danny nodded and stepped aside to let everybody in.

"You guys, what is all of this?!" Vicky exclaimed in bewilderment.

"We couldn't let you miss out on the family vacation," DJ explained, "So we brought Baja to you!"

"Oh, DJ, that's so sweet!" Vicky gushed. "Thank you!"

DJ hugged her stepmother as the rest of the group set to work decorating and passing out plates of food.

"You guys really didn't have to do all of this for me," Vicky said later as they were finishing dinner.

"Well, you missed out on so much fun today that we wanted to make sure you still got a chance to enjoy Mexico, even from inside a cruise ship!" Stephanie responded.

"That's so sweet. I'm so proud of my girls!" Danny praised.

"So, tell me all about what I missed!" Vicky demanded. "What have you girls been up to so far?"

"Well, Stephanie practically cheated on Rusty with the cute waiter at lunch," said DJ.

"I did not!" Stephanie shout-whispered, nudging her older sister in the ribs. She glanced over her shoulder, relieved to find that her father was engrossed in a jigsaw puzzle with the twins and hadn't heard DJ's comment.

Vicky chuckled. "Okay, I want to hear the whole story later!" she said, just low enough that her husband couldn't hear.

Stephanie laughed and nodded eagerly.

The Tanners spent the rest of the evening playing games and watching movies. As luck would have it, a major tropical storm hit the next morning, forcing everyone to spend the rest of their weekend indoors. So while not the ideal family vacation, it was still one they probably wouldn't soon forget.


A/N: So sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger over Christmas, but let's be real, this is a Full House story. There's always a happy ending! Also, there was no way I was messing with Steve and DJ in this story, so have a Stephanie love triangle instead! I'll be taking a short hiatus after this chapter, but I hope you'll all stick with me! Happy Holidays!