Chapter 2
After stepping off the helicopter on the ORCA pontoon, Neri's gaze lingered in the distance while Jason took their luggage and thanked the pilot. Gently, he nudged his wife in the small of her back to alert her to step aside so the pilot could start the rotors again.
"Is Charley nearby?" Jason asked, following his wife's gaze but only saw the vast ocean ahead.
"Yes," Neri smiled, "He just saw Ari, she's on her way to the island."
Jason frowned. "She's out by herself?"
Neri suppressed a smile. Jason was extremely protective of his daughters, and Ari and he were particularly close.
"You worry too much, Jason. She swims like me."
Jason shrugged. "I know. I still wish she didn't go by herself. If something happens...," he trailed off.
"She would call Adam or Anna for help." After all, all three kids had inherited Neri's gifts.
"Don't you want to go straight to the island?" Jason asked, clearly more comfortable with that thought.
Neri pressed a kiss on Jason's cheek.
"I will go soon, but first see Adam and Anna, and Mother and Winston." She took Jason's hand and together they headed towards the elevator that connected the pontoon to the heart of ORCA.
Once they started the descend to the heart of the underwater station, Helen's cheerful voice greeted them.
"Welcome home, Neri, welcome home, Jason!"
The couple smiled at one another and responded at the same time. "Thank you, Helen."
While Helen has gone through several upgrades since the Bates family first moved to ORCA, even this new Helen 2000D+ version retained its close ties with the Bates family, and Winston and Cass Clayborn, for that matter.
"Helen, can you locate Adam and Anna?" Jason asked.
"Yes, Jason. Master Adam is in Family Singh's cabin, and Princess Anna in the lab with Doctor Bates and Doctor Seth."
After the elevator came to a halt at gamma level, the doors opened.
"Alright, then let's head to see Anna, Mum, and Winston," Jason muttered.
Meanwhile, in the lab, said daughter was still sulking about being penalized by her grandmother. Gosh, she had just gone out for a little swim when she got bored watching Dianne and Winston work on one of their boat excursions. Sitting over her math homework right now, Anna had her head propped into her left hand and worked herself through the worksheet. Now and then she emitted a sigh. How much rather she would have gone to spend time with her two best friends, Steve and Meg, who were likely off pranking Meg's overbearing older brother John. Even coming along with her older sister for a swim would have been more fun. But here she was, stuck with Grandma and Winston in their lab. Usually she enjoyed spending time with the two of them, especially with Winston. While Winston was not their uncle, the Bates kids pretty much viewed him as one. Anna sometimes thought he was almost as much fun as Uncle Brett, who unfortunately lived so far away, on the Ocean Planet. But when she was not free to choose how and with whom to spend her time, Anna did not draw any comfort from Winston's presence either.
She looked up when the energy in the room seemed to change.
Winston lifted his head from the microscope which he has used for the past couple of hour to search for the presence of algae on samples of coral.
"Dianne, take a look!" He called out. "The sample from Quadrant D-5 shows traces of algae still!"
Dianne took a peek. While she could not share Winston's excitement, after all this was the first of 45 samples they took from the Great Barrier Reef which has not fallen victim to coral bleaching, there was some hope for the section of the reef they were analyzing.
"Let's hope our luck is turning and we find more positive samples." Dianne said. Winston marked the quadrant on the digital map with a check mark, the first green mark in a sea of red crosses.
Anna was about to get back to her homework when the door to the lab opened. She jumped up when she saw her parents walk in.
"Mum, Dad! You're back!" She threw herself in her mother's arms first, instantaneously missing the familiar scent of the ocean. "Ugh mum, you smell like an airplane," she complained.
"That's because I was in an airplane." Neri pulled her daughter in once more to press a kiss on the top of her head, then she stepped back, allowing Anna and Jason the time to greet each other.
"How are you, monkey?" Jason asked, lifting her off the air and then squeezing her tightly. "How come you're doing your homework here?"
Anna wrinkled her nose and looked down at her feet. "I'm grounded."
"What did you do?" Jason asked sternly. Jason and Neri were loving parents, and Anna was a tad bit spoilt since she was the baby of the family. Still, when needed, Jason was the bigger disciplinarian of the couple.
Anna side-glanced at her grandmother and then looked up at her parents.
"When Grandma and Winston took me along on the boat, I got bored and returned to ORCA without telling them."
"Anna," Neri said reproachfully.
"I know Mum, I'm really sorry. I didn't want to worry Grandma and Winston, I just didn't enjoy myself."
Anna looked perfectly remorseful, channeling her feeling of regret in the warm eyes she had inherited from her mum.
Jason sighed. He couldn't be mad at Anna for very long when she looked at him like this.
"Monkey, you know you are not permitted to swim out there by yourself, only with Mum, or one of your siblings! If you got bored, you could have offered Grandma and Winston to help. Uncle Brett and I helped out on the boat all the time."
"Ok, Dad. I won't do it again. I'm sorry." Anna said. Then, with a hopeful look in her eyes, she asked: "Am I still grounded?"
"Oh yes, you are," Jason responded, and Neri nodded.
"Oh man," Anna said, and slumped back behind her desk to continue her math assignment. In the meantime, the adults greeted one another.
"Hi Mum, Winston," Jason said, while Neri hugged Dianne tightly. When the two women let go of one another, Jason hugged his mum, too. He was a bit worried about the dark circle under Dianne's eyes.
"Thank you for watching the kids for us. Were they a bit much this time?"
Dianne chuckled and shook her head. "I'm just getting old. Other than this one incident," she looked over pointedly at Anna, "the kids were mostly well-behaved."
"As Winnie the Pooh has said 'I do remember, and then when I try to remember, I forget," Winston offered with a smile.
Neri smiled back at him, while Dianne chuckled.
"At any rate, Adam is studying with Sabah, they have a chemistry quiz tomorrow. And Ari went to the island after she finished her homework."
"Still, you look tired," Jason said. "It's good we're back."
"We're glad you're back, too," Dianne admitted. "So, tell us all about your trip."
Jason was about to respond, when Neri stopped him with a squeeze his hand. "You tell mother. I will swim to island."
"Oh, can I go too?" Anna asked, clearly paying close attention to everything the adults said.
"No, you finish your homework," Jason responded.
"But I need to wet down," Anna objected.
"You did an hour ago, love," Dianne said.
"You stay," Jason said sternly, then he turned to his wife
"Be careful, Neri" Jason said, and the couple shared a chaste kiss.
"Ew, gross," Anna said, and turned back to her homework.
Neri took a loving glance at her youngest child before she left the lab. Once she reached the family cabin, she quickly changed into her old dress, still the best for swimming after all these years. The recent journey and the news of a spreading mystery illness had weighed on her. After seeing her youngest child, her heart felt less heavy, and the prospect of seeing her other daughter, her friend Charley, and finally her son at night warmed here heart.
"How good it is to be home," she thought, relishing the feel of the cool water on her body after she jumped into the ocean.
AN:
Joey8: Thank you so much for your loyalty to this story :) I hope you enjoyed these glimpses into our favorite couple's adult life while also getting to know their youngest kid in this chapter.
Guest: Thank you so much for your kind words. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I try to update this story about once a week, but last week I got sick, so it took me longer… Feel free to check back and to drop comments :)
