Some Time To Play

The trip to Thunderbird Five was over and done with. Both of the returning women had some time to sleep and eat a hearty lunch with a sharp-eyed Grandma Ruby keeping an eye on Mae's food intake. Now Sally wandered out to the pool, dressed for sunbathing. She found Christa lying face down on a lounger, sunning herself, the ties on her bikini top undone so as not to leave a white stripe. Mae, clad in halter top, shorts, sunglasses, and wide brimmed hat, sat reading a magazine, leaving a lounger empty between her and Christa. She burned easily and tended to take more precautions in the sun. Sally gave Mae a little wave, grinned, and briefly placed the bottom of her chilled tumbler on Christa's well-browned back.

"Hey!" Christa exclaimed, sitting up suddenly, clutching her bathing suit top to her chest. Sally laughed then stretched out in the lounger between her sisters. Her strapless two-piece showed off her already golden shoulders and midriff. She applied some UV protectant tanning gel to her arms and long legs, then adjusted her sunglasses. Christa muttered under her breath and lay back down.

JC was swimming laps, a pasttime she never tired of. Sally winced as the bruised shoulder time and time again rose above the water.

"I'm surprised that Nana let JC swim with that bad a bruise."

Christa turned her head in Sally's direction. "Do you really think Nana could actually stop JC from swimming?"

Sally thought about it a minute before replying, "No, I guess not. Nobody and nothing could stop JC from swimming. Not even that damned accident."

"Nope. Not even that. Compared to those four months in the hospital, Nana Ruby is a pushover."

The girls fell into a companionable silence, relaxing and enjoying the sun's warmth. Then Sally noticed a movement out of the corner of her eye.

"Psst, Christa. Tin-Tin alert."

"Thanks."

Christa reached back as if to tie her bikini strings when a lilting baritone said, "Here, let me help you with that, Christa."

Skilled hands tied both the string across the back and the one around the neck below the long French braid, pausing to linger briefly between the shoulder blades. Christa rolled over and smiled.

"Thanks, Tin-Tin."

The young Malaysian flashed his white smile. He turned to Sally. "Do you need a refill on your lemonade, Sal?"

"No, but thanks for asking." Sally watched as the handsome, bronzed, dark-haired man continued his saunter down to the other side of Mae, where he sat on a deck chair, leaning forward, speaking to the blonde quietly. Mae smiled at him and laughed, and after a few minutes he helped her to her feet and they headed back to the Villa, hand in hand.

"What a flirt he is!" Christa said, as soon as they were out of earshot. She undid her bikini strings again. "I wonder if Mae knows about Val and her little fling with Tin-Tin?"

"Don't count Mae out when it comes to romance," Sally warned. "Mae is very much aware of Val's interest. Val, however, knows nothing about Tin-Tin two- timing her with Mae."

"Ohhhhh!" Christa said, nodding. "Now I understand."

"Yeesss," Sally replied, drawing out the syllable. "Mae says he has a thing for blondes. She doesn't care if he's seeing them both. And as long as she's happy, I'm not saying a thing about it. And you'd better not either."

"I won't, Sal. At least not to Val. Mae might be okay with sharing a man, but Val? Uh-uh!"

Sally sat back and sipped her lemonade. She watched JC as she climbed to the high board and did a complicated dive, making barely a ripple in the pool as she entered the water.

Christa lay quietly for a few moments, mulling over the prospects of Mae and Val and Tin-Tin, when Sally, out of the blue asked, "Have you ever seen that old comic book character that Kyrano named Tin-Tin after?"

"No," Christa replied, "can't say that I have."

"Looks nothing like the real thing."

"Hmm."

Christa reached for her own drink and sipped some through a straw. She looked over at her sister.

"Speaking of love lives, how's Eddie?"

Sally chuckled. "He's fine. I'll be seeing him next week."

"You know he's one of Daddy's rivals," Christa warned.

"Pffft. He's not in Daddy's class and he knows it. He doesn't care either. He'd rather be small potatoes and work out in the field to meet deadlines than sit in an office all day worrying about them." Sally smiled. "I must admit that it's nice being romanced because of who you are instead of how much money your Daddy has."

"Hmm," Christa agreed. "Still, Daddy wouldn't be too happy to know that you were seeing him."

Sally sighed. "I know. But he can't expect us to stay on the Island forever! I'm sure that he'd like to be a grandfather someday."

Her eyes strayed out to JC, who was finally pulling herself out of the pool. The swimmer gave her sister a small salute, which Sally returned, then made a beeline for the hot tub that stood near the house.

"Do you know if JC has anyone on a string?" Sally asked Christa.

"No, though she's been pressing Dad to let her go to some surfing competitions," Christa told her. "By the way, did I tell you that my chair settings were changed again? JC said she didn't do it...."

"Just leave it, Chris," Sally replied. "I'm not taking her down to the beach again. Next time I do, I'll be the one in the sand."

"You? Never."

Sally looked up and smiled. Brains had come out of the house and was talking to JC. She saw JC point in their general direction and the scientist came over to sit on the other side of Christa from Sally.

"H-Hi, Sally," the engineer stuttered, blue eyes peering out from behind thick lenses. Sally snorted a laugh when Christa jumped and squealed, not remembering that her bikini was untied. She grabbed it and clutched it to her chest belatedly. Sally swung her legs over and reached out to tie the strings again while Brains smiled bashfully.

"Don't do that, Brains!" Christa scolded. "You nearly frightened me to death!" Not to mention got yourself an eyeful of skin, you schemer.

"M-My apologies, Christa," Brains offered abjectly. "I came out to see if, uh, you could help me on my latest e-experiment."

Sally rolled her eyes. Experiment, my foot. Can't the genius come up with another excuse?

Christa glanced over her shoulder at Sally, then turned back to the mastermind behind the Thunderbirds.

"I think I could be persuaded, Brains."

The inventor's smile widened. They rose together and walked back to the house, not holding hands but talking softly to each other.

Sally waited a moment until they were inside, then sauntered over to the hot tub.

"Mind if I join you?" she asked her sister. JC swept a hand across the water, wordlessly inviting Sally in.

"Ahhhhh!" Sally sighed as she lowered herself into the bubbling hot water. She leaned her head back, closing her eyes.

"Mae looks thin."

Sally didn't even open her eyes. "I know. She'd been skipping meals again."

"Have you told Daddy?"

"Not yet. Hasn't been a good moment. I told Nana though."

"Ah. Good call."

"Thanks."

The girls relaxed, the sound of waves and sea birds only aiding them in their peaceful repose.

"JC?"

"Yeah?"

"What's with the surfing contests?"

JC chuckled.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Yeah. I would." Sally opened a blue eye. "Got some surfer on a string?"

JC gave Sally a challenging glare. "What's it to you?"

Sally smiled slightly, and closed her eye again. "Nothing. Just curious."

There was a long pause, then JC said, "Well, snoopy Sally, for your information, I don't have a surfer on a string."

Sally spread her hands out. "Okay. It's nothing to me, really. I'm truly curious. Everyone else seems to have someone."

"Like Val and Tin-Tin."

"And you and Eddie."

"And Mae and Tin-Tin."

JC frowned at that one.

"And Brains and Christa," Sally continued.

"Ooh. What do you think that Daddy would say to that relationship?"

"I think he'd approve. It would keep Brains from going much of anywhere. Unless Christa decided to leave."

"Still...."

"There's nothing wrong with it, JC. They're both adults. A fact that Daddy is going to have to wake up to very soon. About all of us."

A jet screamed overhead, the engines throttling back as it approached the Island. Both Sally and JC peered upwards to see what the jet looked like.

"Damn! Not now!" Sally reached her hand out for JC's telecomm, which was sitting on the edge of the spa. JC handed it over and the older woman activated it.

"Sally to Christa and Mae. Sally to Christa and Mae. Bitch alert. Brit bitch alert."

It took a moment or two, but then the speaker crackled with an answer.

"Christa to Sally. Message received." Christa's voice sounded husky and breathy and the response was cut off at the beginning of a low moan.

"Mae to Sally." There was a good amount of giggling and cries of "Stop it!" before Mae finished her message. "I understand." A delighted shriek was severed when Mae cut communications.

"Well, we have an idea what those two are up to, don't we?" JC said wryly. Sally sighed, then handed JC her telecomm and settled back down into the water.

JC gazed at her with amusement. "Aren't you going to go greet Her Nibs?"

"Not unless summoned."

JC thought about this for a moment, then gave a little half shrug. "Works for me," she said as she slid back into the hot tub.

In the lab, behind locked doors, Christa and Brains had just come up for air from a passionate kiss. The engineer had Christa's bikini top off in a trice and was fondling her, while Christa had returned the favor with Brains's lab coat and shirt, letting her own hands rove where they would.

"This is my favorite kind of experiment," Christa breathed, her breath hot in Brains's ear.

"Mine, too," was the husky, stutter-free response.

They paused to look into each other's eyes, and Christa reached up to remove the heavy-lensed blue-framed spectacles. Brains moved a hand to stop her.

"I won't be able to see you clearly."

Christa smiled. "You won't need to." She put the glasses carefully on one of the laboratory tables and turned to run her hands through Brains's short brown hair before kissing the full lips with passion once again.