"Do you have a passport?"

Mouse looked over at Henry, unsure if she'd heard correctly. "Yeah, why?" She was on the floor of the family room, working on a puzzle with Leo. It had been a quiet couple of weeks since the horrible incident on the Fourth of July, a time of recuperating for all three. Leo had awakened with nightmares four or five times and gone to sleep with his father, and on two occasions, with Mouse.

"One of our photographers just broke his leg water skiing, and I have to reassign his upcoming job," Henry explained. "It's in one of my favorite places, and I was thinking it might be fun for the three of us to go, you know, a quick trip, get out of the city for a couple of weeks?"

"Sounds nice," Mouse said, smiling. "But we never discussed me being included in family vacations or anything like that. I don't mind if you want to just go with Leo. I can stay here."

"No," Leo said, looking up from the puzzle. "I want you to come! Please come." He looked from his father to Mouse, eyes wide.

"Obviously I want you to come," Henry was saying. "I wouldn't have asked otherwise. And Leo can't come if you don't, because I'll be working all day." He grinned at Mouse over his laptop. "And don't you even want to know where we'd be going?"

Mouse shrugged as she grinned back. "I don't really care. I love to travel, and it's one the great tragedies of my life that I was born too poor to do it, so wherever it is, I'm game. I heard passport, and I'm all in."

"You are my kinda person," Henry exclaimed, sitting up. "Well, for your information, it's Greece."

"Grease?" Leo repeated. "Like from cooking?"

"No, Leo, this is a different spelling," Mouse explained. "I'll show you on my laptop after we finish the puzzle." To Henry she added, "Sounds fabulous. I'd love to go to Greece. When do we leave?"

"Next week," he replied. "On Wednesday. For ten days? You have anything going on?"

Mouse shook her head. "Are you kidding? For a trip to Greece, I'm clearing my decks. I'd miss my own birthday for that!"

"How?" Leo looked confused. "Mouse, how could you miss your own birthday? Wouldn't you be wherever you were?"

"Never mind, big guy," Mouse laughed, ruffling his hair.

"We won't be in any of the big places," Henry warned Mouse. "I mean, obviously we'll fly in and out of Athens, but we'll mainly be on a little island called Ios. It has a couple of nice, west-facing beaches that get good light and have nice colored water. Not much to do, but it will be relaxing, I think," he concluded.

"I can teach Leo to swim," Mouse said firmly.

Leo looked over at her again, puzzle piece in his hand. He nodded. "I'm not very scared," he said truthfully. "Will you stay with me the whole time?"

"I'll stay with you the whole time," Mouse promised.

"Okay," Leo said.

He rose and moved to sit in her lap, a move that was not lost on his father, who was watching over the top of his laptop. He knew his son was afraid to go in open water since what had happened, which only made sense, and he'd hoped that maybe this trip to Ios, with its beaches, might be a way to get over that fear. He was glad Mouse understood, and Leo was willing to try.

So preparations were made, and five days later they were on a plane for Athens. Leo, of course, was excited about the car ride to JFK, going through security, watching the planes at the gate, and walking down the tunnel to get on the plane. Mouse wondered that his head didn't explode by the time they actually boarded the flight.

They were routed through Geneva, then on to Athens, which Mouse thought was very exciting and sophisticated.

"It's really not, though," Henry laughed, when she said this to him. "It's just a bother, because there are no direct flights. It's not like you get to see Geneva or anything. It's a really beautiful city, though, it's a shame we can't stop."

"I don't care," Mouse insisted. "I've never been to the airport in Geneva, and even if we don't get off the plane, it's still progress for me, okay? Don't rain on my parade, please."

This conversation took place while they were over the Atlantic. Leo was sleeping in Mouse's arms, though he had his own first class seat. Mouse didn't seem to mind that Leo preferred her company to anyone else's, that he preferred to be in her physical presence all the time, to actually be touching her constantly, Henry noticed.

He pulled out his digital camera, which he always carried with him, to take a couple of quick shots of the two of them. Mouse was also used to this, and didn't turn away or make faces, or any of the things people usually did when Henry tried to photograph them. She understood that he was a photographer, and that this was how he interacted with the world. She also never asked to see the photographs. Henry was grateful for this fact, because more and more lately, they were of Mouse, or at least of Mouse and Leo together as the focus, and not just his son.

He looked at the pictures he'd just taken. Mouse's face was animated and lively, still showing her excitement at being in Geneva, even if it was only for a few minutes, only in the airport or whatever. Henry wished he could actually take her out into the city, show her the cool, clean streets, the beautiful architecture, and how the alps seemed to cascade right into their mirror-images in the lake. He would love to show Mouse the amazing, wonderful cities of Europe, to explore the cobbled streets and watch her fresh face as she smelled the incredible scents and absorbed those experiences. Maybe someday...

What was he thinking? Henry turned his camera off and put it away. Nothing like that was ever going to happen between him and his son's nanny. Period. She was his employee. She was young enough to be his much younger sister. He was a grown man, with his pick of nubile, grown women. He did not have to rob the cradle and pluck the low-hanging, nanny-fruit that was tempting him.

Leo had already had an important female figure yanked out of his life, when his mother died. If he, Henry, were to get involved with Mouse, and things were go wrong (and how could they not?), Leo would suffer, he would be the loser. Mouse would leave him, she would be gone from his life.

No. Henry would not knowingly subject his child to such a loss. He was a grown-up. An adult. He could certainly keep his thoughts and hands off the student he paid to mind his son. Reaching out to Mouse under these circumstances would pretty much define "rocking the boat," wouldn't it?

"Henry?"

He looked over at Mouse. She was smiling at him, the little, captivating smile he loved to see. When she smiled fully, when she was amused or found something funny, her nose scrunched up, and her teeth showed a little bit; her eyes got a bit narrower, and her eyebrows moved. When she smiled just a little, like this, however, she kept her mouth closed; the slight dimple she had in her right cheek popped a tiny bit, the corners of her full lips turned up, and her dark eyes remained open wide. Henry found it completely enchanting, and impossible to look away from.

"What are you thinking about?" she continued. "You look so serious."

He shook his head. "Nothing important. Work stuff. Just wondering if all the models got there okay. I'm supposed to start shooting in two days, and the schedule's pretty tight."

Mouse nodded. "Does the weather look okay for you guys?" she asked.

Henry nodded. "No wind or anything."

Wind was the scourge of any shoot, Mouse knew, and could ruin things faster than temperature or clouds, which could always be dealt with.

She nodded and closed her eyes. Leo shifted a little in her arms, small hands grasping at her hoodie as he snuggled into her shoulder, making sounds with his mouth.

Henry's heart stirred as he watched his son, the small features, the smooth forehead, the velcro shoes.

No. He would not upset his world.

Henry resolutely turned away, looking out the window and closing his eyes as well.

*****************

Ios was not usually a place chosen for photo shoots, because the island was very remote, and had no airport. Everything had to be ferried in, which was a very expensive bother, and Henry wondered why the scout had chosen it at all; however, chosen it had been, and the magazine had approved it, so the people and equipment were all going out on a large boat from Athens, a seven hour trip, while the clothes were being flown to the nearby island of Santorini, then sent over by an even smaller boat. It was a European magazine, and they were paying, so Henry just followed directions.

The night they spent in Athens was just a blur to Mouse, as they arrived at night, went straight to the hotel, showered, bathed, and went to bed. The next morning they were up bright and early to board the boat.

Mouse and Henry were much more nervous about being on the boat than Leo. He was looking around as they went up the gangplank in colorful Piraeus, the port of Athens, wanting to take in everything.

"Wow, look at all the boats!" he exclaimed. "Look at that one, it's huge! It has flags, it looks like a circus ship, doesn't it?" He tugged on Mouse's hand. "Ouch, Mouse, you're holding on too tight, it hurts!"

"Oh, sorry, big guy," she murmured. She and Henry looked at each other, grinning. The boat they were boarding today was much older and less glamorous than the yacht Leo had fallen from in New York, much more utilitarian.

"We could've flown to Santorini or Mykonos, and taken a boat from there, but I thought this might be more relaxing," Henry explained. "I don't know why I thought that, but I did," he continued, with a laugh. They both watched as Leo climbed onto a bench so he could look out one of the windows, the way he did when they took the subway or the bus.

"No, I think your instincts were right," Mouse agreed. "Probably the more time he can spend on boats the better for him."

Most of the people associated with the shoot were traveling with them today, which explained the size of the boat. This meant all the models, the assistants, technical people. Only the clothes were coming via Santorini, and hopefully that was all going smoothly, or there wouldn't be anything to photograph.

"I rented us a villa," Henry told Mouse as they sat on either side of Leo after the boat had cast off. They were heading south in the Aegean Sea, and the cool, morning air was quickly heating up. Mouse could tell it was going to be a warm day. "Most of the people associated with the shoot are staying in a hotel near the beach, but because of Leo, I thought we might be more comfortable on our own, you know? Sometimes things can get a little wild and wooly on a shoot," he said delicately.

"What's 'wild and wooly'?" Leo asked, continuing to watch the ocean through the window.

"Nothing, just, you know, crazy," Henry replied, laughing.

"Oh. Mouse, can we go up on the deck and watch the waves?" Leo asked, completely uninterested in the shenanigans of a photo shoot. "I promise to be good, and not fall overboard, okay?"

"Sure," she replied with a laugh.

Henry joined them, and the three of them stood up on the deck and looked out at the beautiful water, which was deep, and the color of cobalt.

"I can't believe I'm here," Mouse said, smiling. "Thank you, Henry, for including me."

"My pleasure," he replied. "It wouldn't be the same without you, for Leo."

Late in the afternoon, the boat finally, safely arrived at the port of Ios, and Henry, Leo and Mouse took a wild ride in an open, jeep style car up to the village and down to the beach, to their beautiful villa, the place that would be home for the next ten days.

It was small, but very pretty, with its own water source and bathroom, and pretty bougainvilleas clinging to it in three different colors.

Mouse's room opened up to a terrace with a view of Mylopotas Beach itself, right on to where the shoot would take place, Henry said.

Wow.

"Where's my room?" she could hear Leo asking.

"Right here," Henry replied. "You're going to share with me, see? There's your bed, right there."

"But I want to share with Mouse," Leo said. He ran out to the terrace, which connected both bedrooms. "Mouse, I want to share a room with you," he repeated, hugging her legs.

"I don't care," she answered, hugging him back. "If your daddy doesn't mind to switch rooms, I can sleep in there."

Henry came out to the terrace.

"Really?" he asked doubtfully. "You're going to be with him all day as it is, wouldn't you rather have a little privacy at night?"

"Really," she said truthfully. "All we're going to do in these rooms is sleep, anyway. We'll be out most of the day, who cares who sleeps in which bed?"

So they carried their bags into the other rooms, and Mouse unpacked her belongings into the little dresser next to Leo's things, while he watched, smiling.

"Now we're roommates," he declared, clapping.

"I guess we are," she said. "Let's go see about dinner, okay, roomie?"

He nodded happily, and they went downstairs, hand in hand, to see what was available.