On Saturday morning, Adam awoke with what was surely a sugar hangover. He groaned as he felt the overly candy-coated feeling in his mouth; to wash it out he got out of the bed he was sharing with Shane, who'd thankfully remembered his bed partner this weekend wasn't his wife, and went to the suite's modest kitchen to brew some coffee. He found Castle already there, dumping spoonfuls of rich smelling espresso into a brewer and yawning widely himself.

'Morning,' Adam rasped.

'Morning back, groom,' Castle replied, locked in the device to the espresso maker. 'Coffee will be up in a few.'

'Marvelous.'

While he waited Adam went to the living room to drink in the gorgeous southern California view and grinned while he took stock of the weekend so far. The night before had been one of total male immaturity and it was fabulous - they'd gone to Six Flags La Jolla which was having a special 'open till 3-am' night because it was the first Friday night since the park's grand opening. Adam loved roller-coasters and to his amazement he'd discovered an activity where he could play cool big-bro to perennial tough-guy Javier Esposito.

They'd eaten funnel cake, pizza, ice cream amongst other things only men could appreciate; because it was one of Adam's rituals at any sort of carnival or theme park, they capped off the over-indulgence of theme-park food with blue slushies so that when they posed for a picture with their tongues out they all looked like they'd bitten a pack of Smurfs. On the way home, they'd stopped by the waterfront and just about all of them had been horribly ill from the combination of fried food and the delayed motion sickness from being on the rollercoasters. Dave had started the trend until it had turned into their own version of the infamous pie-contest scene from Stand By Me; with the exception of Esposito since he'd sat out the majority of the extra-loopy coasters they all lost their lunches, then they'd looked around at each other and laughed their asses off as they rolled around in the sand like howling lunatics.

Though Adam's stomach threatened to revolt a little at the notion of anything stronger than coffee and soft toast at the moment, he knew it wouldn't last long and in about an hour he'd want greasy bacon and home fries with lots of his favourite cure-all beverage - black tea piping hot and laced with maple syrup. He sipped his coffee and looked over at Shane who groaned as he sniffed like Tortuga at the delicious scent of coffee while stumbling out of the room.

'Dude,' he groaned, 'why did we eat like that last night?'

'Because an upset stomach is easier to hand than a hangover if you're planning to go scuba-diving?'

'Right.' Shane winked, wagged a finger at his friend. 'Yet another reason a booze-free bachelor party may sound stupid to the less-educated and right now genius to me.'

'Hey, there's our fraidy cat,' Adam teased Esposito when he saw his friend coming out of the second bedroom he was sharing with Ryan. 'How's your stomach, man?'

'Just fine, thanks, but then I didn't eat three funnel cakes to myself like my brave partner.' Esposito jerked his thumb over his shoulder. 'I haven't heard him sick-up like that since Daniel's daddy-to-be party.'

'March-Madness shooter weekend.' Castle nodded. 'That was a fun time.'

'This one I think will take the cake on uniqueness though. Who else will get to say they went scuba-diving with whales and sharks for their send-off into married life?'

'Some do that on their honeymoons, like Daniel and Andrea went snorkeling in Greece,' Shane pointed out.

'Speaking of honeymoons...' Esposito leaned forward on the counter, elbows pressed against the cool marble. 'What gave you and Lindsay the idea to go to a nude-beach for almost a week?'

'We decided we wanted to try something that we knew no-one else would think to try,' Adam replied, 'so we decided on clothing optional beach. But we're also going to do something classy and adventurous so we're going to Rome for a week when we're done. We're doing the Angels and Demons tour, we're going to a winery, touring the Vatican, it's gonna be a blast.'

'How does a guy who has a drinking problem go to a winery?'

Before Adam could answer, Dave, Daniel and Ryan all appeared from their various rooms, Dave and Ryan looking a little worse for wear. 'Morning boys.'

'Coffee,' the trio said together. 'Now.'

'Here we are.' Castle poured coffees all around then had a look at Adam. 'It's almost eight now and we need to be at the aquarium for nine. Our dive time is from nine until two and we've got more surprises for you in store Adam so we need to get rocking and rolling.'

'More surprises? Like what?'

'You are worse than RJ. Drink your coffee."

Adam had always considered himself an animal lover thanks to the years of going to see horse-racing with his parents but tis was truly something else. SeaWorld was almost like paradise to him with the tanks of dolphins and turtles and whales all gliding silently, serenely through the space.

'Man, Tessi would be in heaven here,' he commented to Esposito as they walked through the tunnel to where they had to meet their aquatic guide. 'Any way you and Meredeth can spring for an early birthday present for her next year and bring her out her on March break?'

'She would be having little girl fan-gasms all over the place,' Esposito laughed.

'Speaking of 'gasms'...' Ryan drawled with a lascivious grin at the groom. 'You and Lindsay get freaky with the fish

'Dude, that sounds so wrong.' Daniel couldn't stop the playful smirk when Ryan realized how his comment coudl be interpreted. 'Besides, those kinds of questions can wait for tonight.'

'What's tonight?' Adam asked innocently, hoping he'd spotted a weak link.

'Well, it's-'

On cue, Dave jumped in. 'No, no spoiling the surprises for tonight, Nurse Brick,' he scolded him even though they both knew it was for form's sake. 'Besides we're here.'

The group stepped onto the platform of the aquarium's scuba tank and through the crystal clear water designed like a coral reef Adam could see eels, tropical fish and manta rays all fluttering under the calmly ripply surface of the water. He saw the gliding monster of a sleek grey shape and realized, to his secret relief, they weren't going dive with sharks but with dolphins. He grinned and wondered how jealous Lindsay would be when she learned he'd gottena jump-start on her; part of their honeymoon package at Eagle Bay was a snorkeling expedition to swim with dolphins at a nearby marine habitat.

Two men and a woman, all the epitome of the California sun-and-fun club, approached them; the woman stopped behind the men to check something in the water while the taller of the men flashing a pearly-white smile.

'Hey there, welcome to Coral Cove Adventures. I'm Matty, this is Kaoma and the little lady playing with the thermometer back there is Darla. You all have your scuba licenses?'

The men took out their wallets and all handed over their shiny laminated cards which Kaoma took and recorded on his clipboard of safety procedures. 'We'll be going into the neighbouring swim tank first-' Matty gestured to the tank opposite the artificial lagoon which was little more than a very very big swimming pool '-so you can get used to the feel of the water pressure. We try to emulate it as best as we can to the ocean but our human guests have said they notice a difference. So we'll head back and get you wet-suited up.'

Ten minutes later, Adam was sitting with his legs in the water of the lagoon; he'd been permitted to forego the swim-tank, as had Shane and Daniel since they'd all had experience scuba diving before. He doodled designs in the water with his fingertips as Darla sat down beside him and he grinned when one of the dolphins came right over to them, nuzzled like the family pet at Darla's knee.

'This is my baby girl Brooks. She was the first calf I delivered and she follows me around like a puppy.' Darla stroked the animal's head. 'Brooks this is Adam, he's getting married next week.'

Adam could only laugh when the dolphin rolled to its back and waved its flippers in the air as if doing a victory cheer. 'You're cute,' he told her, 'think you can get my friends to tell me what their surprise is for me?'

When the dolphin shook her head, Adam shrugged. 'It was worth a try.'