A/N: I would like to say a quick apology for skipping a couple of updates. In my defence I wasn't actually at home last weekend. Instead I was out doing my Silver Duke of Edinburgh expedition and walking 55km. And in case it's not clear, I would much have preferred to be at home writing for all you lovely people. Anyway, I'm updating now. The prompts for this chapter came from Sweets and Charades and Sarcastic Bones (I merged them together), so I'd also like to say a big thank you and I hope you like it!

Beaches

Emily Merchant was a city girl, born and raised in London, living her entire life there, even after she began her journey through the gateways. The only times she'd ever left the capital were when her father would drag them out to the countryside in the Lake District for what he called a holiday. But, despite summer being in full swing, it was always dismal, rain coming down in buckets and turning the sky a miserable, permanent grey that seemed to leak through the landscape, darkening the trees until they looked rather foreboding. Needless to say, the young Lady Merchant never used to enjoy her holidays. It would have been warmer had they just stayed in London.

Thus, when Matt mentioned something about getting away for a summer break, Emily was rather apprehensive about it. Matt Anderson, however, had the correct idea of what a holiday should be. He'd booked two train tickets down to Kent so that he and Emily could spend some time at the seaside. It was basically their honeymoon. With so many conversions, the pair hadn't been able to get the time off work to go anywhere exotic and were settling for staying in the country.

The train itself was a bit of a new experience for Emily. It was no steam train, rather the high-speed link that got them to Ashford International station in under an hour. Then they simply got a taxi to take them to St Mary's Bay. The sun was shining, reminding Emily of exactly what she was missing in the Victorian Era. She'd never remember it, but actually, when she was three her father suggested taking their summer holiday in Kent, going to Folkestone, the fashionably holiday at the time, but had been called into work at the last minute.

But for arguments sake, it was her first trip to the beach. When they stepped from the taxi, Emily could already see fine grains of sand in the car park and was eager to climb the steps in front of them and see just what a beach looked like. Like a child on Christmas day, she felt her heart beat race in excitement and led the way up the steps in her wedges, pulling Matt behind her, oblivious to the smirk on his face.

Emily stopped completely at the top step, gasping in awe. Sculpted sand ran down to the sea, which drifted forwards in gentle foaming and then retreated in perfect timing with the beating of her heart.

"You know it would have looked a lot better in your time, right?" Matt asked, referring, of course, to the effects of pollution.

Emily, whose eyes were busy staring in wonder, did not notice the slight grey tinge to the water, or the odd pieces of rubbish dotted on the sand; but Matt did.

Pretending not to him hear, Emily unhooked the sandals from her feet and tentatively placed one foot in the sand. It was warm to the touch, heated by hours in the sun, and moulded to the contours of her skin.

Matt rolled his eyes at her taking her time to enjoy the sensation of moving on sand. "Come on!" He gave her no time for an answer before he swept her feet out from under her, catching her at the knees and across her back and carrying her down the beach.

"Matt!" Emily squealed in surprise, snapped out of her awed reverie by the shock of suddenly finding herself in mid-air. Her husband carried her down the beach towards the water and then threatened to drop her in, before placing her on her feet and taking her hand.

"So what do you want to do then? A barbecue? Or go for a swim?"

"A barbecue sounds good," Emily responded, not that she had ever had one.

"Well why don't you stay here and sunbathe whilst I go up to the shop and buy everything, hmm?"

Emily kissed Matt goodbye and took the towels from the black backpack over his shoulder, spread them on the sand and found her book. She was so engrossed in reading about Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy that she didn't notice Matt's return with two heavy shopping bags.

"You're supposed to take your shirt off to sunbathe, Em," he said with good humour as he deposited the bags at her feet and threw himself onto the red towel beside her.

Emily pulled her cream shirt away from her in confusion. "And then what? Bathe naked?"

"No, didn't Jess explain? You sunbathe in your swimsuit, Emily, in your bikini."

"She might have mentioned something about that," Emily conceded, somewhat embarrassed. "Are we ready to barbecue then?" She asked, nodding towards the bags and folding the corner of her page down so she didn't lose her place.

Matt nodded and reached forwards from his kneeling position to pick up the bags. "One disposable barbecue," he said, taking it from the bag and placing it between them on the towels, then continuing to show her everything he'd bought, he listed, "one bottle of water, one bottle of ketchup, some sausages, some burgers, some buns, some tongs, two glasses and some matches."

Matt set the barbecue up a few paces away and lit it with a match then re-joined his curly-haired wife to wait for the flames to die down.

Emily rolled closer to him and laid on top of his arm which was about her shoulders.

"This is nice," Matt murmured into her ear.

"I know. The sun's so warm."

"I was actually talking about this," Matt replied, tightening his grip on her shoulder slightly.

"Oh. Well this is nice too," Emily responded, smiling at her own naivety.

Somehow they managed to fall asleep amidst the smoke of their barbecue and it was an hour later when Emily woke up with a rather dry throat.

"Matt…" she mumbled into his neck.

A soft snore was emitted from his lips whilst he continued to sleep.

"Matt!" Emily croaked more insistently.

Finally he woke up. "Yes, Em?"

"Can you get me a drink of water?"

Matt yawned and stretched as he got to his feet and wandered over to the barbecue and returned with the bottle of water and a glass. As he poured it out, bubbles rose to the surface of the plastic glass, but Emily did not notice as he eyes were resting closed against the bright sunlight overhead.

"Here you go, Em." Matt handed the glass across and laid back down.

After drinking a large mouthful, Emily hurriedly spat it out in surprise.

"What is that?"

Matt glanced down at the label on the bottle then back at the still fizzing water.

"Oops."

"Why oops?" Emily asked, her eyebrows raised in suspicion.

"I appear to have accidentally bought sparkling water instead of still…"

"And what, may I ask, is sparkling water?"

"Well it's still water…just with carbon dioxide in it to make it fizzy," Matt explained, looking pointedly at the bubbles in her glass.

Tentatively, Emily took another sip and found that now she was prepared for the different taste, it wasn't half bad. However the feeling of the liquid almost trying to escape from her mouth took some getting used to and it took her a while to drain the glass whilst Matt cooked their sausages and burgers. She still hadn't finished it when he brought the food over, each burger and sausage in a bun with tomato ketchup.

The barbecue made Emily feel rather full, but it was a satisfied kind of full and she and Matt fell asleep, enjoying their first trip to the beach together immensely.

A/N: Thank you so much for reading and reviewing! It really means a lot and I would love it if you had time to leave a review for this chapter too. I'd really like to know what everyone thought.