Author's Note: Praise the Lord! The plot bunnies came back from vacation this morning! Thanks to everybody for sticking around and being so patient.
I know that last chapter was painfully short, but it didn't really fit in with this chapter, so, think of it as an in-between chapter.
To Alex: Thank you kindly for reviewing.
To Allie: Yeah, it made sense. Once I read it like five times. Thanks for reviewing, you know I appreciate all reviews.
To Your Spell-Binding Lover: No, sparkling apple cider doesn't have alcohol. It just…sparkles. Yeah. Yay! Cruise, cruise, cruise! Thanks for reviewing!
To jd: Happiness is on the way, but soon to be followed by sadness, I'm sorry to say. Thanks for the review.
To MollyMKS: Oh yes, heavy dresses. Thanks for reviewing.
To MeganT: Thanks a lot (for the meaning and for reviewing).
To Alycia: Did I reply to this using your email address? I don't remember. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!
This chapter dedicated to GURL-from-MARZ, who I officially think may very well be the single person most obsessed with this story. Dragging your boyfriend out of a movie theatre to go read my last chapter? Now that's dedicated.
A special note to Your Spell-Binding Lover: Pay attention…your favourite game appears!
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: I, MrsEads, hereby relinquish all rights of and pertaining to the ownership of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Kokomo, the Beach Boys and all affiliates. I claim ownership only to original characters, and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental, unless I happen to have named one after you, in which case it is entirely intentional. No animals and/or brothers were harmed in the production of this chapter.
Sara awoke to gentle kisses peppering her arm. She rolled over to face her husband and smiled when she saw his face.
"Mornin', beautiful," he said, as had become custom.
She responded by kissing him. He gladly accepted. "Today we get to go to the Caribbean!" she said, squirming excitedly.
"Together," he added.
"Together," she repeated. She liked the sound of that.
They kissed for a little while longer before getting up.
In the kitchen, Catherine was already sitting at the table, reading a newspaper and drinking a cup of coffee. She heard the couple enter and said in a singsong voice, "Someone's happy…"
Sara and Nick both turned red.
"What?" Catherine said, shrugging. "I haven't gotten any action in a long time. I have to live vicariously through you," she said matter-of-factly. It was then that Sara noticed that the collar of Catherine's housecoat was suspiciously high.
She walked boldly over to her and pulled down the collar before Catherine could react, revealing a rather large red hickey.
It was at that moment that Warrick decided to walk into the kitchen, and when he saw what Sara had discovered, he felt his cheeks grow hot. He tried to keep his cool, but blew it when he stammered as he said, "Good morning, everybody."
"Good morning, Warrick," Sara said as though she knew something.
"Sara. Nick," he said, making his best attempt at being nonchalant.
"Did you sleep well?" Nick asked, smiling.
"Oh, fantastic," Warrick replied.
Finally, Sara couldn't keep it in any longer. She burst out laughing. "Come on, you guys, we know you were together last night, and you know that we know. You can stop pretending now."
"Well then." Warrick walked over to Catherine and kissed her on the cheek. She smiled.
Sara gaped. That had been way too easy. She felt how she guessed Ecklie must have felt right after he'd busted her and Nick on their engagement. She was a bit disappointed, and Nick felt the same way.
Sara and Nick made breakfast, and Sara showed off how she could flip French toast without using a spatula. Catherine was impressed, and asked if Sara could teach her how to do it. Sara refused.
Nick and Sara said that they'd better go make sure they had everything ready to go, and left Catherine and Warrick to mingle with each other in the kitchen.
"Final boarding call for Flight 213 from Dallas, Texas, to Nassau, Bahamas," came the announcement over the loudspeaker. Nick and Sara were already on the plane. This time, though, Sara wasn't the only one squirming excitedly.
Nick remembered something. "Oh! I almost forgot!" Reaching into his carryon, he pulled out a Discman and popped in a CD to which he deliberately didn't let Sara see the title. She put on the headphones and a very tropical melody filled her ears.
Aruba
Jamaica
Ooh, I wanna take you
To Bermuda
Bahama
Come on, pretty mama
Key Largo
Montego
Baby, why don't we go
Down to Kokomo?
Sara smiled. "Hey, those are all the places we're going!" she exclaimed.
"Sure are. The cruise line actually organized this cruise based on the song."
"No way!" Sara said, gaping.
"Yep. Said so in the brochure."
"So, you're the one who organized all this, so let me see if I can get it straight. First, we land in Nassau and drive to the port. Then, we get on the ship and…sail around and all that, and then we finish up in Key Largo and take a plane back to Las Vegas?"
"Yeah. It's a two-week cruise. It didn't exactly come cheap, but we have a lot of time. We can go snorkelling, scuba diving, see ruins, dance on the ship, eat, drink…" he trailed off.
"Other stuff?" Sara supplied, raising her eyebrows and leaving no room for misinterpretation about what she meant.
He pulled her close to him and kissed her on the cheek. "That, Mrs. Stokes, goes without saying."
They landed in Nassau three hours later, and the humid heat of the city hit them full blast. They hailed a cab and drove to the port, where they would board the cruise ship, the Spirit. The Spirit was scheduled to cast off in three hours, so Sara and Nick had a lot of time to spend exploring before they wanted to be up on deck and watch the ship sail off.
On the Sun Deck, there was a man playing a steel drum in front of a sparkling pool, children splashing each other inside. Nick laughed as he heard two old women, one wearing a purple bathing suit and a matching flowery bathing cap, and the other wearing the same thing in red, arguing. Just then, a man in a white shirt came up behind them and they got his attention. Nick assumed that he was the cruise director.
"Is that ocean water in the pool, there?" the woman in purple asked.
"Yes, it is. We pump it in, filter it, use it, clean it, and pump it back out again," the man in the white shirt answered.
Satisfied, the woman in purple turned to the woman in red. "See, Marge? That's why the water is so rocky," she said smugly.
Nick could hardly contain his laughter, but Sara hadn't heard what he had. She was busy looking through a pamphlet advertising all the things they could do in their various stops.
As the ship began to get underway, Nick and Sara traveled to the railing and waved goodbye at nobody in particular, happy that they would finally be alone for a while.
The schedule called for an assembly in the auditorium, during which the man in the white shirt they'd seen earlier introduced himself as Jeff and outlined the safety precautions and everyday proceedings of the ship, as well as the itinerary of location visits. The assembly ended with a Broadway style performance of Kokomo by the Beach Boys, the inspiration for the cruise.
At dinner that evening, a man came up to them and introduced himself as their waiter. "My name is Charlie Brown, and I'll be your waiter for the duration of the trip. Is there anything I can get for you to drink? A glass of wine, perhaps?" he suggested.
"No thanks," Nick replied. "Do you have anything non-alcoholic?"
"Certainly. We have a large selection of sparkling drinks, all completely alcohol free," he said, directing them to the proper spot on the menu. Charlie seemed like a friendly guy to both Nick and Sara. Nick and Sara peered over the menu and made their selections. "Tonight, the special is jumbo prawns with a zesty marinara sauce," Charlie introduced to them.
They both decided to have the special, and they both thought it was heavenly. They were mingling with the other six people at their table, who had been assigned as their dining mates for the rest of the cruise. Bob and Charlotte, who were both in their late fifties, were from Florida, and had come on the cruise as a second honeymoon. Charlize, Jayden, Connor, and Amy were a young family from Delaware out on their family vacation. Connor was five, Amy was seven, and Charlize and Jayden were in their early thirties.
Sara loved their kids. She thought they were so precious and could hardly wait until she had her baby.
Their first stop was in the Bahamas. Nick and Sara went to a fish fry, drank tons of virgin Bahama Mamas, and went swimming in the dark at a lagoon, which quickly turned into skinny-dipping, which in turn became "other" events.
Back to the ship, and they went to their cabin. Even though it was small, it was gorgeous. They'd managed to get one with a window, so they could see the sea whenever they wanted. Not that they were really that interested in outside; they were far more interested in each other.
Their second stop was in Jamaica. Sara laughed when she heard how many people actually said "Mon". They went snorkelling twice and shopped at several different vendors. Nick bought Sara a shirt that had a smiley face on it with a Rastafarian hairdo that said, "Smile, mon!" underneath it. Sara bought Nick a pair of blue surf shorts with flames at the bottom. They were so uncharacteristic of him that she couldn't resist.
They went back to the ship after a few hours, and ate supper with their dinnermates, making small talk until they went back to their cabin and resumed the previous night's "activities".
Aruba was next on the schedule, but Nick and Sara didn't really see much of it. They meandered around for a few hours, but got bored quickly, since there wasn't much to see. They helped themselves to the self-serve ice cream machine and decided to hang around in the on-board casino for a while. They played a few games of blackjack and a few rounds of roulette, but they both knew what could happen if you weren't careful while gambling, so they cut it off there. Aruba was not all it was cracked up to be, but the Stokes had a good time while docked anyway.
Bermuda. Oh, Bermuda. The newlyweds went snorkelling again, and this time decided to try their hand at scuba diving too. Sara took to it very quickly, but Nick was…well, he sucked. He came up too fast and almost got the bends, but he was lucky. It was only because Sara pushed him down and kept him from coming too close to the surface that he didn't get the bends.
They decided to eat at a really fancy restaurant. They knew that it would be expensive, but they were not prepared for the bill. They'd both had asparagus, and apparently, it was fifteen dollars a spear! Nick's eyes bugged out a bit, but he quickly regained his composure and whipped out his wallet.
They reasoned that maybe they'd better stay on the ship to eat from now on.
Following the pattern of the song, it was time for Key Largo. Like Aruba, the Stokes quickly got bored and went back to the ship. They played in the arcade, surrounded by teenagers, and Sara kicked Nick's butt on just about every game. Surprisingly, one of the few games that Nick won was 'Dance Dance Revolution'. She'd quickly become uncoordinated, while he managed to maintain his dexterity throughout the entire round.
Neither of them was really sure whether to tell their coworkers that Nick won. On one hand, Sara would be embarrassed because she lost, but on the other hand, the joke would be on Nick for winning such a game and not beating her on any others.
Montego Bay, back in Jamaica again, was the final stop on the two-week cruise. Sara and Nick were a little sad to see that it was over, considering the fun they'd had, and the "fun" they'd had, but at the same time, were glad to go back to Vegas and start living together for real, have a real life together, have their baby. Or babies. It was still too early to tell whether there was just one or multiples. They were so excited, though, and one of the really great things was that the morning sickness was calming down. Sara'd only thrown up once or twice a day the whole time.
Sara and Nick went to one more fish fry, like they had in the Bahamas. It was a blast.
After the fish fry, Nick and Sara went back to their cabin to start packing. They could hardly wait for tomorrow.
Author's Note: Okay, I know that chapter was a little…weird. But I promise, it'll get better. And I know the order of where they visited makes pretty much no sense. But whatever. I have temporarily rearranged the geography of the Caribbean for my purposes. The two ladies talking about the pool actually came from my own real-life experience. And I actually had a waiter named Charlie Brown when I went on a cruise to Mexico. Okay, pop quiz time! Where is Kokomo? Let me know in a review, and I might be tempted to post another chappie today!