HOW TO BE A HERO

"Hey, Mr. Hero, wake up!"

Gilligan slowly opened his eyes to find a beautiful woman standing over him. She looked concerned, but a smile slowly spread over her lips when he saw her pretty brown eyes.

"Oh, hi, Mary Ann," Gilligan finally murmured. She helped him to his feet. "What's going on?" he asked.

"I'm sorry Gilligan, I think we fell asleep on you-" she started to explain.

"You just kept going on and on… Word of advice, keep it short, next time," Ginger finished, and Gilligan saw everyone was sitting up.

"Oh… right, sorry about that," Gilligan muttered.

"No problem little buddy. The night is still young and we still have our dinner to eat, in honor of our real hero," Skipper put in, emphasizing "real" as though it made a difference.

"Oh... Skipper I don't deserve this. The only reason the headhunter is gone is because I overheard your plan to be a headhunter and I went along with it," Gilligan confessed. He turned and backed away from the table. "Besides, you're the one who saved Mary Ann, remember? She doesn't even remember me jumping in first. I try and I always fail. I don't deserve this party… not for an 'accident,' Gilligan finished, and went straight to his hut. He closed the door and climbed in his hammock, but the door opened again a second later.

"Gilligan…" Mary Ann called out softly, but Gilligan only turned on his side, facing away from her. "Gilligan, please come back out, you are our hero," she said, and Gilligan rolled his eyes and made a "HA" noise. "You are!" she insisted, and then crawled through the bottom hammock, reaching up to stroke his cheek. "Once you made the connection that the one you were fighting wasn't the Skipper, we never expected you to run back to help him – that took a lot of bravery," she said, and Gilligan sighed.

"Or a moment of stupidity… You know, this is the second time I risked my life to save his. He was nearly squashed, once," Gilligan said, with a small smile and a twinkle in his eyes.

"See, Gilligan? You are a hero today, whether you admit it or not, and I am not leaving until you come with me," Mary Ann said, and crossed her arms, giving him a look.

"All right, you made your point Mary Ann. I'll be the 'Hero'," he answered, and jumped off his hammock. Mary Ann smiled and hurried to the door, but Gilligan did not follow.

"Hey! Aren't you coming?" she asked when she realized he was not with her.

"Nope, not till I get something, a hat or a medal - something! Skipper got a lot of pictures taken and a check and a medal, all I get is dinner," he said, and folded his arms, tossing back Mary Ann's look.

Mary Ann smiled brightly and walked back mischievously. She then grabbed his shirt and pulled him close to her and kissed his lips passionately.

"That was for trying to save me, earlier. I'm sorry I forgot to thank you - I was panicking so much I honestly forgot you were there," she said.

"Yeah I figured that. I'm glad you're okay," Gilligan said honestly.

Mary Ann just smiled and then took his hand and the two rejoined the group. Mary Ann then started up a chorus of 'For he's a jolly good fellow,' which everyone sang loud and proud.

Gilligan couldn't have been happier that night as he walked back out later to write:

Dear Diary.

I'm a hero! lest thats what the castaweys sade. it all startid when Mary Ann nerly drowded. I jumpeded in to help her but she just tryed to downed me. Skipper pulled us boths out. he gots lots of pichers taking with her, I was mad diary, I cant help but be jelus of hims sumtims. buts the grup tryed to makes me a hero, curse im bad lucks and recked it all. Theres was a head hunter heres a real one Skipper was a fakes one. I nocked him in the fire and he runned aways. castaways reals nice to me tuday, wondar how long it wills last.

Gilligan