Hey ya'll. This story is to be a couple of chapters long and, as always, will be a Stephen fic....yup I love Stephen fics!! :)

Thank you to all my reviewers from From Hell and Back and for those of you wondering, that was NOT a slash, although it did seem so at the end......This one will also be a friendship piece.

Enjoy

Stephen looked out beyond the palm trees that obstructed his view of the Surprise that was gently rocking with the waves. A smaller boat was coming towards the beach, telling him that his three hours time was almost up. Stephen smiled and looked back at Padeen and Blakeney, who had come with him to search the island for new specimen on the small island. Jack had been as gracious as to let them go out and because of that, Stephen was in a very happy mood.

"Doctor, look at this!" young mister Blakeney called excitedly, "Look at this peculiar lizard."

The doctor ran over eagerly to find a brightly colored lizard. He looked down at Mr. Blakeney with a smile and praised, "Wonderful, Mr. Blakeney. Padeen, do come and have a look at this, it is beautiful. I shall have to collect it and study it. The creature does surely seem fascinating!"

Mr. Blakeney smiled. He liked it when the doctor was in such high spirits; it made him feel happy as well. He put out his hand and grabbed it strategically and handed it to Padeen to put in a cage. He looked back at the doctor, who gave him a nod of the head, and said, "Doctor, where would you like to go next?"

Stephen smiled at the boy and then at Padeen and replied, "Maybe we should head down to the beach; Jack is sending a boat over as we speak. Just gather up those cages, if you please Padeen, and we shall be on our way.

The three explorers marched down the trails in a companionable silence as they headed towards the beach. The crunch of the leaves under their feet and the wonderful singing of the tropical birds was enough for their ears.

Stephen took glances of the brush and forest that surrounded him and sighed. This had defiantly made him very happy. How couldn't it? He was allowed to search an exotic island for many wondrous creatures to his heart's content, or Jack's definition of content, three hours. He noted to himself that Jack had made up all of his lost time on other expeditions that had been cut short.

He looked down at his bare arm, as he had felt something crawling up it, to find a mysterious looking bug and, as a true naturalist would do, studied it with the utmost interest.

"What a curious insect," he remarked under his breath. The creature was an unusual green with purple streaks running along its body that spread down to its legs. Its head held two, great, dark eyes that moved about quickly and just in front of those where fangs, large, dagger-shaped fangs that snapped every so often.

Stephen reached out with his spare hand to pick it off when the creature dug its dangerously sharp fangs into his delicately pale skin. He took in a sharp breath and let out a little yelp of pain that caused Blakeney and Padeen to look back at him.

"Are you okay?" Blakeney asked anxiously, Padeen nodding his head as though asking the same question.

Stephen flicked the bug off of him before he could answer and looked down at a nasty looking bite, but shook it off as 'only a bug bite, nothing more'. Blakeney shook his head hesitantly, as in disbelief, and turned to follow Padeen down to the beach. Stephen began to walk again, but stopped with further inspection of his bite.

"Only a bug bite that hurts like hell!" he thought to himself. He studied his wound closer and saw that it was now bleeding. "I hope that bug wasn't poisonous....Oh, don't be daft, Stephen," he argued with himself, "you'll be fine, it is just a bug bite after all. Just clean it when you get on the ship and you'll be fine."

Padeen and Mr. Blakeney, not noticing that the doctor was no longer following them, walked upon the beach and down to the boat where they found Captain Aubrey and Barrett Bondon waiting for them.

"Ah, Lord Blakeney and Padeen, I see that the doctor as found some new specimen to study," Jack bellowed with a good-humored chuckle at the sit of all the filled cages carried by Padeen. He looked beyond the two approaching figures and found that the doctor was no where to be seen. "Lord Blakeney, where is Dr. Maturin?"

Blakeney looked aghast and turned around to search and replied, "He was following us, and he should be coming anytime now. He couldn't be too far off."

They all waited in an anticipating silence, which was broken by Jack's bellow, "Stephen!? Where are you?"

Stephen gently fingered the fang marks which only made the pain worse. Then he heard a loud, familiar voice calling out to him. He paused and took in his surroundings. 'This isn't where I should be,' he thought. "Coming Jack!" he yelled as loud as he could.

He ran the rest of the way to the beach and found that everyone was waiting for him. "Sorry about that, I was just...inspecting something," he apologized, stealthily hiding his arm behind his back.

"I was beginning to think that we might have to send a search party out for you!" Jack smiled. He walked towards his incoming friend and wrapped an arm around his slender shoulder. "I hope that you have collected as many creatures and what not to where your heart was content, my dear."

"Of course, soul, I have collected more than my heart could content itself with," Stephen beamed. "Thank you Jack, I believe that you have made up for all the time that was taken from me on my other expeditions."

"Good," Jack smirked, "because the next time we will land is in about five months time. I needed you to be in a good mood to tell you that."

"I knew that there was a catch." Stephen glanced his arm once more and got into the boat to sail off to the awaiting Surprise.

TBC.....it gets better, i promise :)