I awoke sluggishly the next morning and found myself alone in bed again. But this time it didn't bother me.

After the batteries of Polonium's Flying Man exploded at sea, I had relived that moment in my dreams for weeks, waking up at night in tears because in those moments I truly believed that Sam hadn't come back. But I was alone with it at the time and it took me time and a lot of energy to process it.

Last night the previous day caught up with me. Sam had disappeared and even though it was only for a short time and I had been sound asleep, I had noticed it and dreamed of him driving a mission on Juno that exploded as soon as Sam left the rescue center and cranked the throttle.

I had woken up in a panic, called out his name in desperation and this time he was immediately at my side.

His embrace had comforted me, given me the security I needed. He was there, he was alive and he would always be with me and stand by me. He had made that very clear to me that night and my fear had fallen away from me, like the leaves of the trees in autumn and like them blown far away in the wind.

I heard the door open and a breeze hit my uncovered shoulders, making me shiver. I was lying on my stomach, facing away from the door. I knew who was coming. I would recognize his footsteps among dozens, no matter how hard he tried to be quiet. I could identify his scent among millions if I had to, I thought with a smile as he reached me. The next moment I felt his lips on my shoulder, then on my neck and I turned around, clasped my hands behind his neck and kissed him gently on the lips.

"Good morning beauty."

"Good morning, my hero." He rolled his eyes and sat down next to me, pulling me close to him. I snuggled up to him all too willingly.

"You shouldn't call me that. You know I don't like being portrayed as something I'm not," he murmured in my ear and I had to laugh.

"Believe me, I don't call you that because of your outstanding performance at work," I replied teasingly and now a grin appeared on his face. He kissed me on the cheek and then turned to the bedside table, where he appeared to have a tray. He came back with a bowl of strawberries and placed them between us where there was room for them before putting one in my mouth.

"I thought we'd make a healthy breakfast today since you overslept for jogging." He also ate one.

"And you think fructose is better than fiber and carbohydrates?" His smile disappeared and I saw him looking at the strawberries in confusion. I took one strawberry and shoved it halfway between his teeth before leaning forward and picking up the other half. "I just wanted to tease you, darling. It's perfect and somehow romantic to have breakfast with you in bed."

"You'll do this so often now that you'll eventually get bored of it," he replied with a smile and kissed me again.

"I could never get bored of this," I sighed contentedly against his lips.

"Nevertheless, unfortunately I have to go shopping straight away. My Mum just called and complained that we overslept breakfast."

"What time is it?" I asked in shock and discovered on Sam's alarm clock that it was already well after 10 o'clock. I enjoyed being close to Sam so much that my entire internal rhythm was thrown off.

"Do not worry. I told her we were working on her grandchild," he replied with a grin.

"SAM!" I protested. My parents were also very open, but there were things that I didn't necessarily tell them about. Sighing, I rolled over to the other side of the bed and put a bathrobe on myself while I got up and turned back to Sam, only to catch him blatantly staring at me.

"It was a joke, my angel. I told them that you were still sleeping because you were very restless that night because of your experiences and that's not a lie."

"I'm curious to see how many more back doors you can find to talk your way out of it," I replied, smiling. "So, what did your Mom make you do so early on your day off?"

"She wants me to cook lunch for the whole family today," he sighed, annoyed.

"I love it when you cook," I smiled again as I lay down in front of him to look him in the eyes. "And I'll be happy to help you with that. Let's go take a shower and then you can tell me what you have planned." I kissed him quickly and jumped back up to help him up too and I thought he was a little more excited about what was awaiting him.

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A little over an hour later, the twins met us at the car as we began to unload the groceries and I gave each a bar of their favorite chocolate, which I knew they loved to eat. It was quite expensive, so Bronwyn didn't buy it very often, but the twins and I had a deal that if they wouldn't tell her parents, I would get them one now and then.

"Did you perhaps want to take something in with you? You can't possibly have your hands full with chocolate already?" Sam now turned to his nephew and niece, who were already on their way to the front door.

"Sorry Uncle Sam," they called out at the same time and each took a bag from my hand, otherwise leaving their uncle and his luggage unnoticed. I couldn't help but laugh before I took a bag from him.

"I'll remember the chocolate thing. Apparently no one here does anything for anyone else without anything in return."

"Yes, my darling. I do! I didn't expect the children to take anything with them."

"They're old enough to take on some responsibility, aren't they?"

"I agree with you absolutely. I will set higher expectations for our children. Promise!", I replied with a smile and went up the stairs in front of him, at the end of which Jenni was already waiting for us and was overjoyed by the wide grin that I was always able to conjure up on her son's face.

We cooked together while Charlie and Bronwyn were at the Cafe and Padrig and Jenni clarified everything with the boat's insurance representative in the living room. The children peeked in every now and then to try what we cook and although Sam always chased them away so that they didn't spoil the surprise, I pushed a spoonful or two towards them to lick though. I knew Sam noticed because he always smiled at me with a cheeky sideways glance, but he let my heart for the children get away with me. Every now and then he scared them away by pulling me close and kissing me, but I strongly assumed that he wasn't necessarily doing this because of the children and I certainly wouldn't complain about it either.

As we were setting the table, we heard Charlie and Bronwyn coming up the stairs and the representative was also saying goodbye to Sam's parents in the hallway.

"Your family is as punctual as the fire brigade," I turned to Sam.

"What do you expect from a model like me?" Sam replied with a smile and wrapped his arms around me to look me in the eyes and kiss me briefly.

"Example? What for?" Charlie chimed in as he sat down. "Yesterday you were late and today you completely missed breakfast because you couldn't keep your hands off each other. You can only get your lack of self-control from Mum," said Charlie grinning and not expecting his mother to just enter the room. So he received a blow from her with the palm of her hand on the back of the head and another kick from Sam against the shin."Ow, damn it. Sam, it was the same place as always. Can't you kick somewhere else?"

"Please leave your brother alone. I can still remember that you didn't come out of the bedroom for three days. The result was that the wedding couldn't happen quickly enough because otherwise Bronwyn wouldn't be able to have fit in the dress."

I almost successfully fought back a laugh, while Charlie and Bronwyn turned bright red.

"Mom, that wasn't really the case. We wanted to get married on that date from the start," Charlie murmured angrily.

"Yes, of course, my darling," Jenni replied and patted his hand before she began to help herself to the full bowls. "Did you have anything else to do today, Penny?"

"We're free, so not really, why?"

"The children told us that no one knows the caves like you do."

"Well, that's certainly a bit of an exaggeration. Moose is very knowledgeable too."

"But only as long as it takes until he loses his bearings again and we have to get him out of there," Sam grumbled and I laughed. It was true that Moose got lost in it almost every time.

"How well do you know your way around the mine shafts?" Padrig asked me with interest.

"Pretty good. After the big storm I looked into them more intensively because we realized how important they are as emergency exits."

"Would you go in there with us? My maternal grandfather was a miner. He always wanted to take me with him as a child, but because of his accident there it never happened."

"I'm very sorry, Padrig," I replied, really concerned. "If you feel like it, we can do it right away."

"Can we come too, Aunt Penny? Please," the twins called out and I saw a grin appear on Sam's face, which was probably aimed at the word aunt. I didn't want to complain that the children, in fact the entire Jones family, welcomed me so openly, but the aunt did make me feel a little old.

"Of course you can. Do you want to come too?" I turned to Charlie and Bronwyn.

"No, I'd rather not. These dark, narrow caves scare me," replied Bronwyn.

"I still have to go to the Cafe and help Mike anyway. We don't want to be on my dearest little brother's skin forever."

"I'm more than happy with the current arrangement, Charlie. Stay as long as you want. That goes for you too," Sam then turned to his parents.

"What choice do we have? We didn't have a home other than the boat."

"We'll have a new one soon, Jenni," Padrig comforted his wife.

"And you can spread out here as long as you like," Sam objected generously. I tried to control my smile. Not everyone had to see how happy I was that Sam and I still had many more nights together before we really had to face the question of whether and when we would move in together or not. You had to see the positive in everything!

"We should also go shopping, Padrig. Apart from the few things we had here, we don't have anything left."

"I could dive down tomorrow and see if I can salvage anything else. Maybe not everything was burned or damaged by the explosion. The boat must have sunk quickly afterwards," I offered them.

"No, you really don't have to. That would be too much to ask, dear," Jenni declined my offer, but I could tell from her face that there had definitely been one or two things on the boat that she was mourning. I couldn't even imagine what it was like to just lose everything. But it was certainly terrible and I decided to help them both. After all, none of this would have happened if Ben's obsession with me hadn't existed. Sam was right that I wasn't directly to blame for what had happened and yet I still wanted to do something good for his parents.

To be continued...