Finishing the last of her packing Rose looked around the room, as if trying to memorise every last detail of this now magic place.
"It is beautiful," she breathed out, not realising she had given voice to that thought.
John, who had been sitting on the edge of one of the beds gave the room a once over, "I can't say I'm much of a connoisseur of such places, this being the first one I've ever stayed in, but it seems pretty spare."
"It's not the furnishings," Rose sat down beside him, slipping her hands in his, "it's what happened here. You, me and..." she patted the mattress with a wicked grin, "and good ol' springy here."
With that she leaned in for a kiss, their lips were about to touch when the door flew open again. This time it was Pete. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline, which considering his thinning locks, was a pretty impressive leap.
He quickly looked away, at a point somewhere above their heads, "not to um, interrupt..." he cleared his throat, "whatever it is you two were doing or about to do," he blushed looking back at them, "but the car's packed, and we're ready to go."
Rose felt fifteen again and caught snogging by her mum out behind the wheelie bins, but then she remembered she was well past the age of consent and met Pete's discomforted gaze with her head held high.
"We're ready too," she rose from the bed taking John's hand once more and helping him to his feet.
Pete nodded wordlessly and hastily left the room.
The ride back to Pete's house was a study in contrasts. Pete was tight lipped and grim faced as he drove. In the little while Rose had come to live on the alternate Earth he had come to view her as his daughter, and felt all the fatherly urges to protect her and keep her from harm.
John had rolled down the window next to him, taking in the passing landscape with eyes wide and shining. His already ruffled hair dancing in the wind and his hands curled over the edge of the glass he was completely silent with wonder.
Jackie, by comparison, was belly-aching at full volume about the hardness of the mattresses at the hotel, the weakness of the tea served at breakfast, the coolness of her morning bath, and pretty much anything and everything.
Rose was alternating between watching John's delighted discoveries and working on how she would approach the subject of her love life not being her Stepfather's never mind without hurting his feelings.
As they approached the estate, they stopped for a red light and John opened the car door and jumped out.
"Where in the hell is he going?" Jackie groused.
Pete threw the car into park and started to unbuckle his seat belt but Rose beat him to it and was out the door and trotting to catch up to John.
He had disappeared over a hill and at first she couldn't see him. Turning in a slow circle on her tip toes she tried to spy the familiar mop of reddish-brown hair amongst the wild flowers and other weeds.
Then she looked down, a few metres away she finally spotted him. He was lying on his back in a patch of purple violets, grin as wide as the sky above him.
Behind her she could hear a car door slam and knew Pete was coming to find them. She knelt down by John, "what are you doing love?" she smiled at him.
"Isn't there an old human saying 'you have to stop and smell the roses'?" he looked up at her.
"These aren't roses," she laughed.
He took her hand and held it up to his nose, sniffing her like she was a bouquet, "no, but you are, and I think you smell wonderful."
Pete appeared over the crest of the hill, Rose caught his scowl and got to her feet holding her hand out, "come on, Pete's about to burst a vein," she gestured at her Stepfather.
John stood as well but insisted on picking a few handfuls of the fragrant purple flowers before climbing back into the car.