Chapter 3: "Round One"

*SMACK!* The hot sting of impact whipped Wally's head to the side as his wife's hand left a flaming print on his cheek.

"Ow! What the crud was that for, Kooks?", he pressed his palm to the bright red patch for a second, then regretted it because his hands were hot and sandy from the game and that intensified the stinging. Kuki did not reply, she was too busy sobbing as Abby tried to console her. Wally didn't know what to do so he tried once more to comfort her. He reached out and attempted to pull her into a hug – big mistake. Big. Kuki raged and screamed a growling animal-like sound, and sprang to her feet. She turned to storm away when the blond bounced up behind Wally and cooed at him.

"Who are these people Wally? I was just gonna invite you to come over to our bonfire, you see we – "

"Girl, ya better get ta steppin'. That right there", she indicated Kuki who stood fuming with her back to them, "is Wally's WIFE! Now you've caused enough trouble already here, so get", Abby glared as the interloper registered shock, and then dared to look incredulously at Kuki before turning to bounce back to her little crowd of friends with a giggle and a wave to Hoagie which earned him a swat from Abby's hat.

"Yeow!"

"Hoagie P. Gilligan, Jr. don't even start! Unless you want to be in the same doghouse as the Australian genius over there", she gestured toward where Wally could be seen chasing after a furious Kuki as she marched away from him with tears streaming down her angry face.

"Come on, Kooks! I just wanna talk to ya', what's so wrong in that?" He received a shriek of fury in reply, but his wife was still walking in the opposite direction. When he didn't stop pleading or following, she finally slowed her pace, spun to face him, and rounded on him savagely.

"Arrrrgh! I have no intention of talking to you about this! Not after what I saw today, you just don't get it do you? Just go home! I'll get a ride with Abby and Hoagie and stay with them tonight, because there's no way in hell I'm going anywhere with you!"

He had never seen her so angry before. If it had been humanly possible he would have sworn that she had eyes of flame, and fangs for teeth. Gone was the sweet gentle woman he loved. There was this creature standing before him now, who was made of nothing but heat, ire, and vengeance. He was loathe to point out the obvious, for fear she'd actually kill him, but at least if she was screaming at him he had her attention and could try to make things right. That is as soon as he could figure out what in the world he'd done wrong. He did know it had something to do with the girl from the volleyball game, what was her name? It didn't matter. He knew by Abby's cold reception of her when the blond had approached that somehow she was in this too. For the life of him he couldn't see how...

"Uh, Kooks?", he tried very softly while reaching out to try and touch her gently. "We only have one car – mine. Hoagie and Abby are riding with us remember?"

"Fine! Then you can all go, I'll... I'll call a cab!", she stood still shaking with sobs, but she had planted her feet now in defiance and her eyes held a challenge to him to contradict her.

He didn't have to though, because just at that moment the Gilligan Family approached and Abby stepped to Kuki's side wrapping a friendly arm around her. She deftly soothed Kuki's tears down to little hiccups before speaking to the rightfully irrational Asian woman for the group.

"Now Kuki, Abby knows how you feel, but refusin' to go home won't solve anything", on Kuki's petulant look she added, "And besides, no one says you have to talk to him", she pointed in Wally's direction while he looked like a dog who'd been kicked.

When Kuki still would not budge, Abby tried a new tack. "OK then, how 'bout this? We go home together in Wally's car like we planned, but you sit in the back seat with Abby and Hoagie can sit up front with Mr. Wanderin' Eyes here. You don't even have to look at him if you don't want to", she coaxed gently and Kuki finally nodded once before striding forward up to Wally and summarily shoving him straight backwards into the sand with both hands. The primal rage was back and she growled menacingly at him as she passed.

He had not had time to brace himself, and he landed hard right on top of a conch shell. He yelped in pain and for a second Kuki stilled as though wanting to turn back, but then she set her shoulders and kept going. Kuki stormed straight to the car leaving the others to collect the beach things, and Wally decided to follow her in spite of all of Abby's warnings not to. He was getting a little angry himself... How was he supposed to fix this, if she wouldn't even tell him what he'd done? Well he'd just find that out right now, and she wasn't gonna wiggle out of it this time. He stomped up to his car intent on pressing Kuki for answers, but the image before him stopped him cold. The woman he loved most in the world, was sitting in the car, top still down, and she was completely distraught. The tears were steady, large and shimmering in the early evening light. Her sobs were loud, deep, and filled with the kind of grief only usually heard at funerals. She was crying as though something had died. Maybe it had. Maybe he'd killed their life together without even knowing how. The thought was enough to rally him slightly and he stepped up to the car door between them and addressed her. He resisted touching her since she shied away before.

"Kooks, please. Tell me what's wrong. I don't know how to apologize unless I know what I did, and I don't know. Please Kuki?", she looked at him with ice in her eyes as though he were a stranger who'd asked his question in a language she'd never heard. Her reply, when it finally came sounded utterly broken.

"Where's your ring Wally?", was all she said before turning from him and staunchly refusing to utter another syllable the whole ride home. Not to him, not to Hoagie, not even to Abby.

When the car did pull in to the Beatles driveway, Kuki finally spoke, and when she did it was so quietly that Wally almost missed it. The whispered words were dipping with anguish, and it hurt him to hear the sound. Even though the whole thing made little sense to him, he still never wanted to be the reason Kuki sounded the way she did now.

"How could you? How could you look at her like that? I saw you, how could you look at another woman like that?"she started to cry again, and Abby rubbed her back.

"That's what this is about? That cruddy girl who played volleyball with us? Kuki you can't be serious, every guy on the beach was lookin' at her. Did you see her? I mean girls like that, well girls that look like that want guys to look at them!" he seemed to think this proclamation should explain everything, but Kuki only wailed more.

"That part's true, ya know girl. Abby was there, every guy on that beach was lookin' at that – that girl", she paused, but Kuki thought she'd finished and had taken sides with Wally.

"I thought you'd be on my side! Abby, you of all people should understand! I thought you were my friend!"

"Now wait a minute, I am your friend. And besides that, Abby never said she was takin' anybody's side on this. Y'all gotta figure it out for yourselves. All Abby's sayin' is, is that the girl was tryin' to get Wally's attention. That part of what he said was true", she opened her door and stepped out. As she did, she whispered to Kuki that she should go inside and work this out. As she did so her husband took his life into his hands and spoke.

"Yeah, Kuki it's not like Wally was the only one! Every guy on the beach was – I mean, uh um, ahem...", he stopped short when his wife's glare pinned him to the nearest wall.

"You say another word, Gilligan and see what'cha get!", she turned and walked to their car and got into it on the passenger side.

Wally got out of the car before Abby walked away, grunted a goodbye to both his friends, and made his way sullenly into the house. Hoagie followed him a few steps and offered a word or two of encouragement. He hugged Kuki goodbye as she too finally exited the vehicle and reminded her earnestly that Wally loved her more than anything. Then he walked to his own car and got in next to his wife. He breathed a sigh of relief that she was not so high-strung as Kuki, but his mistake was in voicing his feelings.

"Wow! Wally is so busted, I mean he's totally not gonna live this down for like a million years! I can't believe Kuki go that upset over that girl. I mean really, who wouldn't look at her with a body like that? That girl's curves would cause a train wreck! She can't expect Wally to act like he's dead – ", he was cut off abruptly by his wife slamming her fist down on the dashboard.

"That's it! You just talked yourself into some real trouble mister! Abby cannot believe you would think it was just lookin' at that girl that got Wally in hot water! He didn't just look Hoags, he flirted, he showed off, he did everything he could to get her to pay attention to him and when she did he never told her he was married. The worst part is that he took off his wedding ring!", Hoagie looked at her confused, and she continued fuming, "Oh! You are impossible, Abby's just gonna hafta teach you a lesson. Until you learn it, you can sleep on the couch, baby!" She crossed her arms in front of her and Hoagie knew that she had ended the discussion for good.

He groaned and then his eyes flickered with a new light as he thought of ways he could try and soften his beautiful wife up. The ideas were piling up in his head and by the time they reached their house he was ready to try one. He grinned wickedly and turning off the engine, he waited.

Author's Notes:

Well, I don't think this turned out quite as good as I'd wanted. I hope you all can forgive my failing and enjoy it anyway...

The next chapter should be better, all I will say is the fight will take a new direction in Round Two...

As always, please tell me what you think. I am sure by bow you know what the button down there is for...