Perhaps I had slept too much the day before, but I was again the first one awake the next morning. It was Monday, the eighth day. Soon, hopefully, someone would find us.

I glanced down at Gerard. His arms were tightly wrapped around my waist, his head on my shoulder, and he was smiling in his sleep. Carefully, I disentangled myself, replacing my body with my pillow, and kissed his forehead. I opened the overhead, and took out my purse, still filled with toiletries, my towel, and my bathing suit. In a matter of minutes, I was in my bikini. I stood, staring at Gerard for a second, then made up my mind, and picked up all of the dirty clothes laying around the floor of the compartment, and in the overhead, and making them into a pile in the aisle. Then I headed for the stewardess' station, where I found a trash bag, and then hunted again until I found a roll of duct tape. I piled Gerard's and my dirty clothes into the bag, and loaded with down with everything else, made my way outside.

Once I had reached the water's edge, near the waterfall, I dropped my stuff on the sand, and took the roll of duct tape. After a moment of searching the tree line, I found two sturdy looking trees about fifteen feet apart, and set about making a rough clothes line out of duct tape. I then returned to the water's edge, where I immediately dropped to my knees, and began to wash our clothing.

First I would soak the item, then, using my shampoo, I would wash it as thoroughly as I could. Next, I would hold it under the waterfall until all the soap was gone, floating across the pool and down the stream, out into the ocean. Finally, I would wring out the garment as best I could, and carry it to the makeshift clothes line, hanging it to dry. Then I would begin the process again.

It took perhaps an hour, I wasn't really keeping track, but finally, I completed the job. I then sat at the water's edge, quickly shaving my legs, before lowering myself into the cool water. I swam a couple of laps before pulling out my shampoo again, and swimming to the waterfall. Soon, I was standing under the cascade, running my hands through my hair as the soap washed my body and hair clean. As I stepped out of the running water, I saw two figures walking across the sand towards me, carrying a bulky package between them.

Soon I could see that it was Charlotte and Tori, carrying a cargo net filled with dirty clothing.

"Hey!" I called.

"We saw you from the windows," Charlotte replied. "Good idea!"

"Tori. What are you doing walking around?" I asked.

"It doesn't hurt at all anymore," she replied, as they reached the edge of the water.

"She walked around on it all day yesterday," Charlotte tattled to me.

"Well," I said slowly. "Before you start running marathons, let me take a quick look at it, so you don't do any more damage."

"Sure," she said, as she sat down in front of me on the water's edge. I unwrapped her ankle, and proceeded to feel the tiny bones in her foot, before twisting and flexing her ankle.

"Does it hurt at all?" I asked, and she smiled.

"Not at all."

"Ok, well, I guess you're good to go then," I replied. "Keep it wrapped for another week though, it's probably gonna be a little bit weak for a while." I quickly re-wrapped her ankle, and she and Charlotte began washing clothes using some dish soap they had found in the supply closet. I immediately grabbed a garment, and began to help.

"So who's clothes are these?" I asked, as I scrubbed a pair of men's shorts.

"Everyone's. We stole them all," Charlotte replied, laughing.

"Bubbles, you thief!" I joked. She and Tori laughed.

"So, um, how are you today?" Tori asked quietly, and Charlotte immediately stopped laughing.

"Better," I replied softly. "I needed that day to decompress. I'll live. I'd like to pack up her things today, and store them with the others. I don't think I can deal with seeing them around all the time. I'm concentrating on surviving, I'll grieve when I get home." The girls were silent for a moment.

"What's the first thing you're gonna do when you get home?" Charlotte asked suddenly. "I'm gonna go to Starbucks, and get the biggest, most caffeine laced cappuccino I can buy." Tori and I laughed.

"I'm gonna quit my job, go back to school, and do something useful with my life. No more photo shoots on beaches like this, I never want to see a beach again," Tori said.

"I'm gonna go see my parents, and get my things, and move to Jersey. Then I'm gonna go on tour with the guys. I might set up some sort of college fund for, like, future doctors and lawyers in Zara's and Amanda's names. Maybe we'll get what's left of Malpractice together and do a benefit gig. I bet the Dropkicks would play. They used to be pretty good friends of ours when we were playing all the time. Maybe MCR will play too. We'll see, I'm really no good at organizing shit," I said dreamily.

"Wait," Charlotte said, pausing in her work. "You're gonna move to Jersey?" I blushed bright red.

"Yeah," I replied softly, as she and Tori began to laugh.

"I told you so!" Charlotte shouted.

"And by the way, where were you last night?" Tori asked, smirking at me.If it were possible, I would have blushed even redder.

"None of your business!" I laughed. She and Charlotte exchanged glances.

"They so totally did it," Charlotte said to Tori, who laughed.

"I guess I owe Bob five bucks," she replied.

"Shut up!" I said, laughing.

"You gonna invite us to the wedding?" Charlotte joked.

"I'd make an awesome bridesmaid," Tori added.

"If you don't shut up, I swear, I'll pin a note to my clothes saying 'Tori and Charlotte did it' and drown myself right now!" I cried.

"But then Gerard would cry, we don't want that," Charlotte said.

"Yeah, he would, and then he'd sacrifice Tori and Charlotte to the Island Gods as retribution," came Gerard's voice from behind us. I jumped about a mile, then turned and smiled up at him. He was standing behind us, in his black swim trunks, arms crossed over his chest. "Is this why all my clothes disappeared?"

"Yeah," I said, laughing, "they're hanging on the line." I motioned over towards the duct tape clothes line. "Good morning." He sank down into the sand beside me, put his hands on either side of my face, and kissed me gently. We ignored Tori and Charlotte's oohs and aahs.

"Morning," he replied, as he pulled away. "Can I use your shampoo?"

"Sure," I replied, reaching behind me and pulling the bottle out of my purse. He took it from me, and got up, wading out into the water, as I returned to washing clothes. As we finished cleaning the last garments, Charlotte carrying them over to our clothes line, Gerard was swimming back to us.

"Hey," he said. "Any of you girls have a mirror? I could really use a shave."

"You'd think I'd have one, but I don't," Tori replied apologetically. "Hey Char," she called then over her shoulder, "you have a mirror?" Charlotte shook her head.

"No, sorry," she called back, as she hung the last shirt on the line, turning and walking back to us.

"I know where there is one," I said slowly. "Zara had one. I'll go get it." I got to my feet.

"Angel, wait, I'll do it," Charlotte said immediately.

"It's ok, really," I said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder to stop her. I turned and walked back towards the cabin, slowly climbing up the ladder. Frank met me in the doorway in his underwear.

"Have you seen my clothes?" he asked immediately, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah, we washed them," I replied, as he began to laugh as well.

"I knew there was a reason we kept you girls around!" he remarked, as I opened the overhead compartment where Zara's things were still stored. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Gerard wants to shave, and Zara was the only one with a mirror," I replied flatly.

"Hey, you want me to do that?" he asked gently.

"Nah, it's ok," I replied, pulling down her suitcase and routing around until I found her large hand mirror. "There we go," I said. "Can you take this outside? I wanna get this stuff packed away."

"Sure," he replied softly. "Hell, I wouldn't mind a shave myself."

"Did I hear someone say shave?" Mikey said, as his face peeked out of his compartment curtain.

"Yeah," I replied, laughing. "Gerard has the shaving cream, Frank has the mirror, and there are razors in the bathroom." In a flash, both Mikey and Ray, both wearing their bathing suits, rushed past me in a mad dash for the bathroom, and a few moments later, I watched as they disappeared down the ladder. I chuckled to myself, before turning back to Zara's compartment.

I put her suitcase on the now-empty bed in the compartment she had briefly shared with Mikey and Ray, and began emptying the overhead of her personal belongings. Her toiletry items I took to the bathroom, her clothes I carefully packed, along with her purse, in her silver, hard-sided suitcase, finally, once all signs of her presence were packed away, closing and locking it. As I stood up from leaning over the bed, I backed into Bob, who had obviously just woken up.

"Hey, Angel," he said softly. "Are you ok?" I smiled at him.

"Morning, Bob. I'm good, you?"

"Fine," he replied. "What are you doing?"

"Packing up her things," I answered. "The guys are all shaving down at the pool, if you wanna join them. You're getting pretty shaggy yourself."

"Hell no!" he replied. "It's not often I have a chance to let it grow. I like beards." I laughed.

"Well, I guess you're gonna get your wish then."

"Um, can I help?" he asked softly. "I can bring those down underneath for you, and get her bed moved out."

"Thanks, Bob.I'd appreciate that," I said. He pulled the bed out of the compartment, and set it up as a chair next to Amanda's, then grabbed the suitcase, and lowered it down to the yellow mat, before climbing down the ladder, picking it up, and disappearing momentarily from sight. I headed to the kitchen, loading a pile of water bottles, coconuts and bananas into a cargo net, and lowered it down onto the tarp as well. Then I returned to my own compartment, pulled on my black board shorts and my sunglasses, quickly made up the bed, and exited the cabin.