J.M.J.

Author's note: Thanks for reading and reviewing! The next chapter will be out tomorrow! God bless!

October 8 – Sunday

The cutter docked in Honolulu in the early hours of Sunday morning. The passengers had slept most of the night, but they were all on deck to watch the lights of the city come into view. A few months ago, Hawaii seemed as foreign as any place in the United States could seem, but now, as the young men stepped off the cutter onto the dock, it felt like coming home. However, they weren't given many minutes to enjoy it before they were besieged with questions from the FBI, the Coast Guard, and the state police. Fenton managed to ward off some of the questioners for a little while, giving the former castaways a chance to breathe. Nancy also helped with fielding questions.

Most of the castaways were eagerly talking about what kind of food they wanted first and such things, but the first thing Tony asked was whether there was a Catholic chaplain on the base and whether there would be Mass that morning. He was told that there was.

"Okay, guys," he told his friends, "looks like I'm done being worship leader or whatever I was on the island. I'm going to real church today. Well, confession first and then Mass."

"Sounds like a good idea to show some gratitude right off," Phil agreed. "Do you think it would be all right if I came along?"

"Sure, if you want to," Tony replied.

The others agreed that they would like to go to a real church service for once. There were services for other denominations that morning, but they all decided to go together, one more time. It was good to spend a bit over an hour in prayer and without having to worry about any officials insisting on interviewing them.

Afterwards, they had breakfast, but after that, they couldn't delay the inevitable any longer. Honestly, they didn't want to. The sooner they were done answering questions, the sooner they could see about getting home.

As it turned out, giving statements wasn't as grueling as any of them had expected. Fenton, Jack, and Nancy had a lot more to tell law enforcement than the others, as most of the events on the island were irrelevant to the investigation. They were finished with the castaways by , Jack, and Nancy were given a lunchbreak and they all had lunch together, even though those three would have to go back and complete their statements afterward.

"I have some good news," Fenton reported. "It's about Katina."

Katina was the one member of the group that wasn't there. The FBI had gotten a Greek interpreter and were working on getting her full story, although the castaways hadn't heard anything more about her.

"She was reported missing here in Hawaii five years ago, when she was nine," Fenton explained. "Her family had just moved here from Greece, and fortunately, they still live here."

"Are they here now?" Biff asked.

"Yes. I haven't talked to them, but I was told that Katina recognized them right away."

"That's good," Biff said. "I've got to admit, I was a little worried about what would happen to her if nobody could find her parents."

"It sounds like she'll be okay," Fenton went on. "It's going to take her some time to heal from everything she's been through, but if she was determined and strong enough to survive on that island by herself, she should be all right."

"Are we going to have a chance to say good-bye to her?" Chet asked.

"Of course," Fenton replied. "Her parents want to meet you anyway. Speaking of good-byes, though, I asked and we can all go home as soon as we're done here, although practically speaking, it probably won't be until tomorrow morning."

A general cheer went up from all the former castaways, although Frank then asked how exactly they were going to get home.

"That won't be a problem," Jack said. "I've still got the plane I rented to come over here, and it handles up to eight passengers, so we should be fine."

"Actually, you'll have a little extra room," Nancy spoke up. "I'm going to go back to New Zealand instead of going directly home. The police there are going to want statements, and then I'll still have a couple of days left over."

"Are you trying to set a world record for the farthest miles traveled in the shortest amount of time?" Joe teased her.

Nancy chuckled. "After the last four months, that's one record that I'm content to not even try to beat. Once I get home, I'm not going to go anywhere for a couple of months, at least."

"As if," Joe replied.

"I might make an exception if I'd happen to be invited to Bayport," Nancy added with a grin. "Although that can wait a while. You guys are going to be inundated with people wanting to see you."

"Yeah," Frank agreed. "But you're always welcome."

HBNDHBNDHB

If any of her fellow castaways had had any doubts whether Katina would be all right without them, those doubts were dispelled once they saw her practically glowing face. Admittedly, she looked exhausted, but they had never seen her look so happy. As soon as the boys entered the room, she jumped up and hugged each of them in turn. Then she turned and presented them to her family, who had stood up when the boys had entered the room. Both her parents were there, teary-eyed, as well as her three younger sisters, the youngest of which hadn't been born yet when Katina had gotten kidnapped. Their last name was Floros, and they showered the boys with thanks for taking care of Katina and getting her safely home.

"We can't really take any credit for any of that," Frank protested as he was hugged yet again by Katina's father. "Katina was taking care of herself for a long time before we got there, and if we played any part in getting off the island, it was mostly accidental."

Mr. Floros waved off his words. "You are the first friendly people my daughter had around her for five years. She has not stopped telling us how much it meant to her not to be alone any longer."

Katina broke in, speaking excitedly in Greek.

"She says that she'll always think of you all as her big brothers," Mrs. Floros told them. "She also says that she understands that you need to go home, but she hopes to see again sometime. She says that by then, she hopes she will have learned to speak English."

"Tell her that we might have actually learned a little Greek by then," Biff requested.

When that had been translated for Katina, she laughed.

"She says that if you speak Greek and she speaks English, then you still won't be able to talk to each other," Mrs. Floros said.

The boys chuckled at the joke, but they felt a little melancholy at the same time. As much as they wanted to go home, it was hard to say good-bye to Katina.

HBNDHBNDHB

It was late afternoon when the former castaways and their companions left the Coast Guard base. By this time, the news had gotten out and there were reporters gathering around, hoping to ask questions or get pictures of the boys that they could print, but the boys managed to get past that obstacle. Fortunately, the reporters didn't try very hard to follow them to their hotel.

"I don't know if I'll see any of you in the morning," Nancy said as they all paused in the hallways outside their respective rooms. "My plane leaves first thing in the morning."

Jack checked his watch. "We're getting to bed early enough that our plane will probably leave first thing in the morning, too."

Nancy grinned. "Well, just in case, I'd hate to leave without saying good-bye."

She hugged each of the boys in turn, ending with Frank and Joe. The three of them lingered in the hallway a few minutes longer after the others had gone into their rooms.

"It's really going to be something to sleep in a real bed again," Joe commented.

"I hope you can sleep," Nancy replied. "After all that time sleeping on the ground, it might take some time to get used to sleeping in a bed again."

"We were gone four months, not four years," Joe said with a shrug. "Besides, it didn't take that long to get used to sleeping on the ground."

"I know you went through a lot trying to find us, Nance," Frank said, changing the subject. "I know you said you don't feel like you did very much, but it means a lot to us. Thank you."

Nancy smiled. "I'm just glad it turned out the way it did. I mean, I'm glad that all of you are safe. I wish your dad could have gotten the location of island a different way. Were you able to talk to Callie today, Frank?"

Frank shook his head. "She was awake, but she was too groggy from the pain medications to talk on the phone. Hopefully, I'll get to see her tomorrow."

"I want to tell her directly, too, but could you please thank her for me?" Nancy requested. "I owe her a lot. If it hadn't been for her, I might have been stuck on that island a lot longer than one night."

"I'll tell her," Frank said. "Bye, Nance. We'll keep in touch."

"Better than we have the last few months, anyway," Joe interjected, causing the others to chuckle.