So here's part 3. w00t! I'm glad you are all liking this and I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and leave a review.

Disclaimer: DOn't own it. Luana belongs to the Sanateers though.

Tell me a Story (part 3).

"Wanna paddle." She announced, pulling his fingers again. "But keep telling the story, Papi."

"Yes, Your Majesty." He snorted, prizing her little fingers from where they were wrapped around his pinky like a leech and instead placing her hand in his, dwarfed by his wide palm span. Safe and secure in his grasp. "So, where was I?"

"Harold and Bob are in the sea and Barry is disappeared and Ted got stolen by Captain Frank and the pirates." She reeled off happily as they began a slow walk out into the sun, her skipping at his side.

"Sure." He mumbled. "So, Harry and Bob are floatin' round, clingin' to this piece o' wood for dear life and the blood from Harry's wound is attractin' all the sharks and sea monsters from deep, deep down on the ocean floor. All come lookin' for somethin' a bit tastier to eat than just plain old fish."

Luana stopped dead in her tracks, jerking his arm suddenly and drawing his glance over his shoulder, peering down at her curiously.

"There…there aren't no sea monsters in this sea…are there, Papi?" she queried tentatively, shooting a chary stare at the cool blue waters a mere five feet away from them now. She clasped his hand a little tighter, pressing herself against his leg nervously and Sawyer chuckled, reaching down to heft her into his arms with a hand beneath each armpit.

"I dunno, Princess. How 'bout we go ask Uncle Jin over there." He pointed to the Korean man, tossing his hand made nets out into the surf and dragging them back in onto to sand where his stock of fish was growing. "Hey Uncle Jin!" Sawyer bellowed, continuing his slow and steady stride towards his neighbour and Jin looked up from his work, standing straight from where he had been crouched down examining his catch. He smiled lightly, wiping his hands free of salt water and fish scales upon his trousers before tousling Luana's dark hair and tweaking her nose.

Sawyer tucked a strand of his daughter's sleek locks behind her ear and out of the way of her face for her.

"Go 'head then, Kitten. Ask away." He prompted but she turned her face into his neck shyly, peering at Jin through one eye only. "Come on now, don't go all shy an' embarrassed on me." Her father laughed at her actions before glancing over at his friend who smiled knowingly. "Little Lulu here wants to know, Uncle Jin, if there are any sea monsters in them there waters."

Jin raised his eyebrows.

"Sea? Monster?" he repeated, frowning in confusion and even though his English was near perfect after nearly five years of tutelage from his wife, Sun, he didn't understand the true meaning of the word until Sawyer mimed out a shark's fin and gnashing teeth. "Ah!" he exclaimed finally before muttering something in Korean as if confirming what it was to himself. "Shark!" then he turned his attention to where Luana peered at him, curious now, from where she was tucked beneath her father's chin. "No sharks here today, Luana. No sea monsters. I would have caught them by now if there were."

And something akin to relief flashed across her young face as she squirmed suddenly to be set back on her own feet and took off at a tearaway pace down to the water's edge.

"Kids, huh?" Sawyer grumbled to Jin who merely laughed and went back to disentangling his latest catch from his net.

Luan meanwhile was already splashing water about, drenching herself in the process.

"Get back to the story!" she screeched happily at the top of her little lungs as Sawyer swaggered her way tentatively, hands in pockets. Wary, for he knew from experience that a child of his in the water meant that he was liable to be getting wet!

"Calm down, Sparky!" he called, dodging a wickedly aimed splash of seawater in his direction and fixing her with a stern look and raised finger. "Now, you gonna be a good girl and come take hold my hand and listen to the story properly?"

Knee deep in the crystal clear sea, Luana froze as if considering his request fully before making an informed decision and Sawyer knew from the sly grin forming on her lips, showing off those dimples that told everyone that she was most definitely his, from the evil glint in her dark eyes, from the poise of her slight body, that her answer was going to be a 'no' and he was about to get a showering of shockingly icy awakening.

"Luana Ford…" he warned, voice a deep growl as he moved towards her agonizingly slowly.

No sudden movements. That was the key, or so Ana had told him on the many occasions that their 'beautiful' daughter had decided to lead the other island youngsters upon a mad, riotous half-hour, tearing around the beach like children possessed. But then again, Ana had been a cop prior to the crash upon the 'Bermuda Island', therefore she had no problems getting tough when she needed to. Sawyer on the other hand had never been overly fond of following the rules himself. He'd never had a Momma nor a Daddy to teach him how to be one and he'd told Ana as much too many times to keep track of, but especially when he was on the verge of being driven absolutely barking mad by the bad behaviour of a child he could not control and leaving them there on their own while he went off to live the life of a crazy hermit in the jungle.

Ana's response to him was always surprisingly positive, if a little impatient with his constant self-depreciation and threats of disappearing on her like her own father had done to her mother when Ana had been little more than Luana's age. She had little time for either.

'My dad was never around and my Mom was always working,' she'd reply in between reprimanding the leader of the 'Brat Pack' as Sawyer had taken to calling the island youngsters. 'You don't get taught how to be a good parent, you have to learn it as you go along!'

And Sawyer would roll his eyes behind her back and mumble beneath his breath that 'Yeah, don't matter if you screw up as long as you can pop out another to try again with.'

If she ever heard his response, she never acknowledged it, though sometimes he suspected she heard him quite well. But by that point her words had, more often than not, already snapped him out of his desperation.

"Luana!" he warned again, but before he could reach her and before she could splash more water and hit him dead on, something scuttled towards her beneath the shallow waves, disturbed by her splashing and the scream that left her throat was ear-piercing, resounding down the beach and drawing anxious stares from the other survivors who had previously been minding their own business and living their own lives.

"Daddy! It's a sea monster!" she screeched, reaching his side in record timing and attempting to scramble up his leg into the safety of his arms. She fisted a hand in his shirt, the other desperately reaching for one of his hands as her feet clawed at his leg, trying desperately to find a foot hold to lever herself out of the sea and the reaches of the supposed 'monster'.

Sawyer stifled a chuckled and scooped her up into his embrace, balancing her on his hip. Ana-Lucia would have cuffed him across the back of his head if she'd seen him laughing at something that so obviously had terrified her daughter and so instead he stooped, ignoring the resumed screaming as Luana found herself nearing the water again, and fishing out the little critter that had scared her so much.

"Easy, Sugar-Lump." He soothed, straightening once again and heading back to dry land. "It's only a little crab. Lookit. Lookit his little legs." He led it up between his finger and thumb for her to view but Luana only wailed more ferociously until he'd tossed it back behind them onto the sand and they watched in silence as it scuttled angrily back into the surf, leaving them alone. "You done paddlin' now, Scrappy?" he ventured finally and the little girl nodded, seemingly still traumatized by her run-in with the 'sea monster', curling her fists into his shirt as he hefted her a little higher onto his hip. "So…how about we finish up that story, huh?"

-oOo-