Eames rested her chin on her hands across her partner's chest, watching his face. From under heavy lids, he studied her in return. His fingers lightly brushed over the skin on her back. "Forgive me?" he whispered.

"Yes. Understand you? No."

He laughed softly. "Sorry."

With the tip of one finger, she traced circles on his chest. "Don't be. You keep life interesting."

"Interesting? Is that what you call it?"

"What do you call it?"

"Stressful. I don't like you being mad at me, Eames."

"I don't particularly like being mad at you, either. But you have to admit, making up is pretty damn great."

He laughed again, kissing her lightly. "Yeah, it is," he agreed. "But can't we go right to the making up without the being mad?"

She poked him in the ribs. "Gee, why didn't I think of that?"

He rolled over, trapping her beneath him with a smile. He kissed her, teasing her lips with his. "I don't know. Why didn't you?"

With light kisses and an even lighter touch, he teased her, knowing full well she'd get him back for it later. And he looked forward to that with relish.

----------------------------------------------------------------

"Check," Logan said with a smile.

Barek moved her queen and, with an even bigger smile, replied, "Mate."

He studied the chessboard. "No way. Where'd that come from? Damn, Barek."

"That's three wins for me and two for you."

He got up from his chair and stretched. "Ok, I'm crying 'uncle,' at least for now."

Crossing the porch, he looked out toward the lake. She watched him. "How's your rash, Mike?"

He looked over his shoulder at her. "I wouldn't have a rash if you..."

"Don't you even. You started it."

He grinned. "I did, didn't I? Goren said it would be a lot worse if I hadn't showered right away."

"You're lucky he knows what to do."

"As annoying as that can be sometimes."

She looked into the cabin through the window. "He did come back to the cabin, didn't he?"

"I thought I heard them talking early this morning."

"He must have spent the night out wandering."

"That wouldn't surprise me. He was pretty upset when I talked to him."

"He wasn't any better when he left the second time. He wouldn't talk to either of us."

"That's pretty serious when he shuts down and won't even talk to Eames." He looked thoughtful. "Do you think Deakins knows about them?"

"Yeah, I think he does. Is he gonna do anything about it? Not a chance. He'll never give them up, if he can help it. And they're not stupid. It's not anything they'll showcase around the squad."

"Half the squad thinks they're together anyway, and the other half thinks it's bound to happen sooner or later."

"What about us, Mike?"

He looked thoughtful as he crossed back to her and sat beside her. "What about us? I drive you up a wall."

"Because you can't help being an idiot."

"I am what I am."

She laughed. "I don't think I'd want you any other way."

"That's reassuring."

"If we're going to continue together, though, we're going to have to be careful, you know. We're not Goren and Eames."

"And we never will be. So, do we continue into it, or do we step back?"

She nodded her head toward the cabin. "They won't say anything."

"No, they won't."

"So the last obstacle is you. Can you be discrete?"

"I'm an obstacle?"

"If you can't be discrete, you are."

"It's not like I'd ever throw you across the desks..."

"You are not going to throw me anywhere."

He laughed and leaned toward her, giving her a quick kiss. "Ok, you can do the throwing."

"Don't worry, I will."

He gave her a mischievous grin. "You're my dream girl, Barek."

The door opened and Eames came out of the cabin. "What's up, guys?"

"Not much," Logan answered. "Where's Goren?"

"In the kitchen."

"Is he ok?" Barek asked.

"He's fine."

"When did he make his way back in?"

"Around dawn."

Logan shook his head. "So he did wander around in the woods all night long. Man, you really did a number on him, Eames."

Barek gave him a shove. "Go talk to him."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. You don't have to hit me with a frying pan every time. I'm going." He went into the house and headed for the kitchen.

Goren looked at him. "You get banished from the porch?"

"Yeah, they want to talk about us. How are you doing?"

"I'm good."

"Just good?"

He grinned and turned his attention back to the refrigerator. "Sandwich?"

"Ok, you talked me into it."

He pulled out several packages of cold cuts while Logan got the bread. Goren looked at him as he set the mayonnaise and mustard on the counter. "I did figure out one thing."

"Yeah? What was that?"

"You asked how they make us do shit all the time."

"Yeah. You said it was in the rule book."

He shook his head. "It's not. Doesn't have a thing to do with the rule book."

"Really?"

"Really. It has more to do with...uh, temptation and promise."

Logan looked thoughtful. "I never thought about it that way, but damn, you're right. Given the right...motivation, yeah, I'd do almost anything she asked."

"Almost?"

"I try to avoid absolutes. I get my ass in less trouble that way."

He absently scratched his arm. Goren picked up an apple from the counter and tossed it to him. "Don't scratch. It'll get infected."

Logan grimaced and tossed the apple back. "She owes me for this one."

"Why? It was your fault."

"Could you be on my side just this once, Goren?"

Finishing with the sandwiches, he put everything away. "All right, Mike. Just this once."

He handed Logan two plates and two bottles of beer. "Can I tell her I made her sandwich?" Logan asked with a grin.

"I don't care."

They crossed the great room to the front door and Logan poked his head out. "Is it safe to come out now?"

"Sure," Barek replied, smiling.

He looked over his shoulder at Goren. "The way they're grinning, this can't be good."

Goren gave him a shove through the door. "Just deal with it," he muttered. "You're not going to avoid it."

Logan stopped and turned back toward him, lowering his voice. "Who the hell wrote that damn rule book?"

"They did and you know it."

"Maybe we should write our own."

Goren laughed. "Why bother? First of all, they'd never read it. Second of all, their book would overrule ours anyway. Deal with it, Mike. They own us."

"Can't blame a guy for trying."

He continued onto the porch and handed Barek her lunch. Goren came around behind Eames, gently kissed her neck and sat down in the chair beside hers, handing her a plate and a beer. Logan watched him. "You're right, Goren."

"I know," he answered with a smile. There was no doubt in his mind that these women owned them both.

Eames looked at him. "Right about what?"

"Never mind. You've probably figured it out anyway."

"How do I know if you won't tell me what you're talking about?"

He just smiled and took a drink of his beer, shifting his gaze to Logan, who grinned back at him. Barek looked at Eames. "So what do we do with them?"

"I have a few ideas."

Barek laughed. "I think you're in trouble, Bobby."

"I know I am," he answered, but he didn't look worried. This was the kind of trouble he didn't mind at all.

------------------------------------------------------------

"Son of a bitch," Logan swore, sticking his thumb in his mouth reflexively, then yanking it out and spitting into the water over the side of the boat.

"Hook yourself again?" Barek asked.

"Shut up," he snapped.

Goren leaned over and took the hook and worm from his hands. "Don't snap at her," he said, slipping the bait onto the hook and handing it back to him.

"Fine for you to say. You didn't just stick worm guts in your mouth."

"Taste good?" Eames teased.

He held his hand toward her. "Want a lick? You can see for yourself."

"Don't tempt me, Logan," she shot back.

Goren turned away from them, trying to hide his amusement from Logan, who had accepted a challenge from Barek about catching the first fish. Eames seemed to know what the bet was about, but Goren decided ignorance was his best bet. Eames leaned toward Logan and said, "Still determined to catch that fish, Mike?"

Annoyed, Logan leaned toward her and, his eyes shifting toward Goren, replied, "You wanna go swimming, Eames?" Goren looked at him, catching his smile, and gave him a warning glare. "What's fair is fair, Goren," he said with a grin.

"Getting tired of being picked on?" Goren wondered.

"Just a little."

The big detective studied the tip of his fishing rod, then shifted his eyes back to Logan. "You know how easy it is to capsize a rowboat, Mike?"

"No. And I don't want to find out, thank you."

"Then maybe you should watch how you treat people."

"Meaning leave your partner alone, right?"

Goren shrugged. "If she goes swimming, so do you."

Logan smiled at him. "Is that a threat?"

Barek smacked him in the back of the head. "Why are you antagonizing him, you ass? If any of us can flip this boat, he's the one, and I don't particularly want to go swimming right now."

Goren leaned back into the bow of the boat. "He's not antagonizing me," he commented.

Logan leaned against the side of the boat, smiling at Goren. "So how would one go about capsizing this thing?"

"You really want to sink Deakins' boat?" Barek frowned at him. "Have you lost your mind?"

"It wouldn't necessarily sink," Goren said.

Eames hit his leg. "What the hell are you doing?"

"What? It wouldn't."

"Hmmm," Logan mused. "So is there any truth to the rumor that if you stand up in a rowboat you'll flip it?"

Goren shrugged. "There might be."

"Bobby!" Eames frowned at him. "Do not encourage him."

"I'm not. I've stood up in rowboats plenty of times without flipping 'em. Then again, Lewis did it once and whoop...right in the lake. He never stood up in a rowboat again, and damn near tossed me over the next time I did."

"Wanna experiment?"

"No!" Eames and Barek answered in unison.

Logan laughed, raising an eyebrow. "So if I stand up..." He got to his feet in the center of the boat.

"Logan," Barek warned. "If you don't sit your ass down I swear I'm going to knock you out of the boat."

Intending simply to make a point by unsettling the two women and maybe get back at them a little for all the teasing, Logan began shifting his weight from side to side. "Uh, Logan..." Goren began. But his warning came too late as the boat flipped in the water.

Logan surfaced, immediately looking for Barek, who popped up right by him. He quickly moved away from her, laughing. Goren surfaced next, looking for his partner. "Where's Eames?"

Logan scanned the immediate area. "I dunno."

They both disappeared below the water's surface. Logan came up first. "She come up?"

"No," Barek answered. "You're dead meat, Logan."

They heard a splash on the other side of the boat. "Alex?" he called.

"I swear I'm going to throttle you, Logan," she sputtered.

He looked relieved. "You ok?"

"Yes."

"Goren over there with you?"

"Yes, he is."

Logan and Barek swam around to the other side of the boat, where Eames was resting her head against Goren's shoulder. Goren frowned darkly at Logan, who grinned apologetically. "Sorry, guys, but wow, that was really easy."

Barek also frowned at him. "I thought you were afraid of swimming in the lake."

"I'm getting used to it out here. Besides, Goren convinced me there aren't any sharks or anything in this water."

Eames poked him in the stomach. "Thanks a lot."

He shrugged, wrapping his fingers around her hand and turning his head toward hers. "I never expected him to want to go swimming," he said by way of an apology.

Logan looked at them. "So, Goren, how do we get this boat back to shore?"

"We swim it back."

"We?" Barek asked. "Who's we? You want to help him, be my guest. I'm more inclined to let him do it on his own."

"We can't just flip it back over?" Logan asked, studying the capsized boat.

"No, we can't," Goren answered. "And it'll be a hell of a job for one person to get back by himself."

"Why didn't you tell me that?"

"I had no idea you actually planned to flip the damn thing."

Barek swam over to the boat, found the tow line and brought it over to Logan. "Have fun."

"Great. Thanks."

Eames sighed and pulled away from her partner. She kissed him and said, "We'll see you boys back at the cabin."

Goren glared at Logan. "What?" Logan said. "I didn't know..."

"Then you shouldn't have done it, dumbass. Start pulling. I'll swim behind and push it along."

"I'm gonna owe you for this, huh?"

"You bet you are."

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When Logan came out of the shower, there was a fire going strong in the fireplace. Barek looked at him from the couch where she was sitting, and he grinned at her. She shook her head. "You're impossible, you know that?"

"My mother told me that often."

"I have no doubt she did."

He looked at Eames, who was watching him from where she sat in an easy chair near the fire. His shifted his gaze to Goren, who was sitting on the floor closer to the fire, not having any luck hiding his amusement. "What the hell possessed you to do that, Mike?" Goren asked.

Logan shrugged. "I wanted to try it."

"Flipping a boat?"

"Well, seeing if it would flip."

Barek threw a cushion at him. "Newsflash, idiot. Rowboats flip with little provocation."

He threw it back. "So does my partner."

She sighed. "Come over here and sit down."

"Is it safe?"

She laughed. "It's safe. I'm not going to do anything."

He looked back over at Goren and Eames. "You guys are my witnesses."

"If you're so worried about retaliation, why do you do such stupid things?" Eames asked reasonably.

"I don't know. They just come to me."

"It's a guy thing, Eames," Goren told her.

"Really? I don't see you flipping boats in the middle of the lake."

"I've done it, more than once. I've done a lot of stupid things, believe me."

Logan laughed. "So you've got them out of your system now?"

"Not entirely," he grinned.

"Ok," Eames leaned forward. "Tell us what the last stupid thing you did was."

He turned to face her and said, "Look back over the last five months, Eames, and start counting."

"Touche, Goren," she said with a smile, leaning closer and gently kissing him, to reassure him that she had, indeed, forgiven him for everything. He smiled back at her, letting his fingers linger on her cheek and his eyes on her face. She rested her forehead against his, and said, "We can't change the past, so we leave it behind and move on. Ok?"

He nodded. "Ok." As she sat back in the chair, he said, "Letting Logan stand up in the rowboat."

She looked confused. "What?"

"That would have been the last stupid thing I did."

They laughed, and it felt good to let go for a little while. The world could be a very dark place. For them to be able to focus purely on fun and laughter and each other was a rare and welcome pleasure, and they deserved it. The real world wasn't going anywhere in the next few days, and all too soon they would once more be confronted with the dark side of human nature. It never hurt to be reminded, however briefly, that there was a lot of light left in the world and they were a part of that light and the hope that came with it.

fin