Eventually, all of us laughing and tired, we agreed to a halt to the game as we hung onto the edge of the pool to catch our breath. I looked around, and saw Agent Hendricks standing off to the side, a bemused expression on his face. When he was sure that he wasn't going to get splashed, he came over to crouch down by me and say "I don't think these people have*ever* had quite so much fun protecting someone as they have with you people. How you can do it is beyond me."
I looked up at him and said "It's easy, actually. If we stay locked up in our rooms, they win. Non Illegitimus Carborundum."
He looked confused, and I translated for him: "Don't let the bastards grind you down!" – then splashed him before heading for the other side of the pool. When I got there, I saw that all of the other agents were trying to hide grins at the sight of him standing there with a large wet spot on the front of his suit. He looked positively stunned for several seconds, then started laughing before telling me "Just remember, Dan: paybacks are a*mother*!", making several agents laugh. I just grinned at him before heading over to dunk Lucy. With that, the game was on again.
Finally, all of us had had enough, and by mutual consent, the game ended. We kind of collected in one corner of the pool, and one of the female agents told me "Mr. Andrews- I mean, Dan, I think this is the first time in my life that somebody has paid me to play grab-ass in a pool!", making the other agents laugh, and agree.
Lucy told them "Thank you, all of you, for jumping in with us and helping make this fun", then floated over to give each of the male agents a kiss on the cheek. Robyn and Sandra offered their thanks and kissed the guys, too – embarrassing them mightily. The females looked at me, with a mixture of anticipation and welcome; I went over and gave them a proper thanks, as well. Neither one hesitated in the slightest to kiss me back, and both looked pleased when we'd finished.
Robyn called out "Last one OUT is a rotten egg!", and promptly eeled out of the pool, leaving the rest of us to scramble out as best we could. The last one out was one of the male agents, who accepted the good-natured teasing he got with a smile and a laugh.
As I was drying off, I saw Lucy look behind me; but before I could turn to see what it was, felt myself being drenched in ice-cold water. I turned around to see that Agent Hendricks had emptied an entire pitcher of ice water on me, and was rapidly heading away, laughing. I laughed, too, joining everyone else, and nodded to him in acceptance of his trick.
Mostly dried off, the four of us wrapped our towels around ourselves to avoid dripping water onto the hotel carpet, and headed back to our rooms. Once there, we all stripped and headed in for a group shower to rinse off the chlorine from the pool. With that out of the way, we opted for a brief nap – Lucy and I in one bed, Robyn and Sandra in another.
I woke up to find Robyn climbing on top of me. Resting on her hands and knees, she looked down at me to ask "So, what's for supper?" – making me and Lucy both laugh. A moment later, Sandra assumed the same position over Lucy, who just turned to look at me.
I thought it over, and offered "If anyone's in the mood for some shopping, how about if we just grab a bite at the mall?"
All three of them thought it was a splendid idea, and Lucy goodnaturedly handed me the phone so I could give the FBI agents a headsup.
They didn't have any problem with the idea, and readily agreed to the fifteen minute time I offered. Lucy and the girls heard me, of course, and all immediately went into overdrive as they rushed around to get dresses in something more than the birthday suits they'd been wearing. Even though I ducked into the bathroom to shave again, I still managed to be ready ahead of them.
A while later, as we were going into the mall, I spotted one of the female agents that had been in the pool with us. Looking like a young housewife, she presented quite a different appearance than when I'd seen her last. I couldn't help easing over next to her and whispering "Personally, I think you looked better in pool!", causing her to grin and whisper back "Thanks!", before I rejoined Lucy and the girls.
First on the agenda was something to eat – Sandra and Robyn decided on pizza while Lucy and I went for roast beast sandwiches.
With something in our bellies, we were off to do some*serious* shopping. I lost track after about the umpteenth store, but I'm *pretty* sure we hit all of them. Any we might have missed probably didn't have any reason to be in a mall, anyway. When we were done, all of us were pretty well loaded down with packages – even I'd been drafted into pack horse duty. I think that the only thing that saved us was a couple of the agents discretely offering to help, each taking a package or two. I think they did it as much to try and blend in with the mall crowd as to help out.
Back at the hotel, we managed to get everything hauled up to our rooms, and decided that the easiest thing to do was to simply pile it up in the girls room. Lucy, the girls, and I thanked the agents that helped tote all the stuff by kissing the agents of the opposite sex.
With Lucy wearing an engagement ring, there wasn't any reason to pretend that we weren't staying together, which left one room 'unoccupied'.
Too tired from the pool and all the shopping, none of them had any interest in showing off the stuff they'd bought. In fact, all three of them started yawning not long after we put away the stuff we'd bought. I asked if anyone wanted to stay up, but none of them did; after a short discussion, we decided that Lucy and Sandra would sleep together, as would Robyn and I. That settled, all of us headed off to get ready for bed after kissing each other good night.
The next day, the three of them spent the day lazing around, watching movies on TV and so on while I got caught up on the work that I'd put off while helping Lucy. Every so often, one of them would come in to check on me; and if I wasn't too busy, would come over to give me a kiss or a hug. With that kind of encouragement, it actually didn't take me long to get caught up – again, laying the groundwork for the project in the first place saved me time and trouble in the long run.
As it got toward evening, I reached the point where I felt comfortable saving everything I'd done and putting the computer away.
From there, I went in to where Lucy and the girls were stretched out on the bed, watching a movie on the television. I joined them, and told Lucy that when the movie was over, she and I needed to talk. She nodded, and when the credits started rolling, the two of us got up to head into the girls' room. There, I told her that we probably needed to talk to her boss and their client the next day, Monday. She agreed, and we worked out the details of what all we needed to tell them, and in what order. Lucy got on the phone and left a message for her boss, telling him that we'd be giving him a call at four o'clock the next afternoon so he could make the necessary arrangements with the client.
With that out of the way, the next decision – according to Robyn and Sandra – was what to eat for supper. Not wanting to 'dress up', and feeling the desire to get out of the hotel for a little while, we settled on fast-food fried chicken. I called down to let the FBI people know, as well as to inform them that we'd be eating in whatever public park we could find. Hendricks told us there was a park with tables and a small pond not far away, and I readily agreed to his suggestion. We gave them some time to get set up, and then it was out for supper. Only a couple of cars tagged along with us as we hit the drive-though of the chicken place; most of them were already waiting for us when we got to the park. Lucy and the girls were delighted that there was a pond, and understood why I'd gotten an extra order of dinner rolls with the chicken. We found a table not far from the pond, and soon had a nice collection of ducks hitting us up for dinner rolls. A couple of squirrels showed up, too, but didn't find anything to their liking. A few crows hung out on the other side of us from the ducks, and decided that scraps of fried chicken were acceptable, though the mashed potatoes that got tossed their way found a couple of takers, as well.