Keats smirked; it wouldn't be the first time that Tibbs had helped him close the deal with a woman. He called the cat with a very specific whistle, and Aurora and Keats were soon joined by a young, sleek, black and white tomcat. He was friendly, immediately nuzzling against Aurora's leg and purring. 

"Aurora, meet the occupant of the other bedroom I asked for. This gentleman here goes by Tibbs, although his full name is Tybalt, the Prince of Cats. Which you may recognize from Romeo and Juliet or, if you're particularly well read, the folkore of Reynard. We've been partners for two years now, even since I found his mother giving birth in the basement where I kept my product."

Aurora then began to speak in French, “One feline to another, your majesty, I greet you in your native tongue.”

She made a sweeping bow.

“May I introduce myself as your humble servant, Aurora, The Lioness of Race Street who is the daughter of the fearsome huntsman, the white wolf, Gavin Byrne and his beautiful bride, the late Godmother Isabella Byrne, also of Race Street.”

Aurora scratched the cat behind its ears and pet it’s glossy coat lavishing it with love in the way a child might a favored pet.

In English she spoke, “he is magnificent. And while I was going to argue about the details of our deal I think he speaks well for you. You have your deal. You don’t know what yet she just made the deal of a lifetime or rather the prince of cats has made the deal of a lifetime. You should definitely stay in business with him, he’s good for you.”

Aurora stood up and offered her hand to Keats.

Tibbs seemed to appreciate the attention from Aurora, and he sat up and curled his tail around his paws when she began speaking to him. By the time the scratching began, Aurora had obviously made a new friend- or two. Keats was, frankly, surprised that she accepted his terms. Perhaps she had so much money that she didn't need to worry about an extra 5 or 10 percent?

He agreed that Tibbs spoke well for him; the cat was as well fed and groomed as any feline since the Egyptians worshiped them, which would seemingly argue to his dedication and attention to detail. 

Ultimately, it didn't matter why: what mattered was the deal. Keats shook her hand.

"Aurora, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"If I'm right, this whiskey is worth more than its weight in gold to me."  she gave Keats a smile.  "You have no idea how much I appreciate this, we're gonna make a mint together, that I promise you."

She picked up the bottle.

"Your majesty... rest easy, perhaps I'll see you later on in the trip." She looked back to Keats, "I hope to see more of you as well."

With that Aurora made her way out of the room, down the hall and back to the suite where her father had been 'sleeping.'  She wondered if he really was sleeping this time, but decided she didn't care if he was.  Instead, she gave a knock, a polite wait time passed and then she opened the door and came in.

"Alright..."  she said loud enough to wake him.  "I hope you're prepared to lose a shit ton of money tonight.  I'm not letting you off the hook without some satisfaction.  You slept all day and I demand you sit up and prepare to defend your title as this family's best card player."

Aurora went over to her bag on her bed and fished out her deck of cards.  Then she grabbed two glasses from the bar and walked over to his bed.  "Don't tell me you don't feel like it until you at least taste this whiskey I put myself in debt to buy you.  If you hate the damn whiskey, well... I'll drink the whole damn bottle just to forget how wrong I was about it's near magical properties and how much I just agreed to spend in order to go into business with the maker.  Then you can crawl back down between your blankets and I'll accept your admission that clearly I am the superior card player in this family."

She dropped the deck of cards into his lap and then she poured them both a glass.  She put his on the nightstand and took hers to the foot of his bed.  She climbed up onto the bed and folded her legs crisscrossed.  "BUT... drink first, then decide if you're going to yield your title to me or sit up and defend it."

When he reached for the glass she snatched up the deck of cards and opened the box, watching him as he sipped.

Keats stuck his head into the hall and watched Aurora walk away, calling after her, "I don't think it's possible to see much more of me! But I agree with your sentiment!"

If she looked back, she would have seen Keats' head sticking into the hallway, mirroring Tibbs' head a few feet below him. As she turned the corner, he glanced down at the cat and sighed, "She's nice. Let's go eat some shrimp."

_______

Gavin was awake staring up at the ceiling and focusing on his breathing. Every time he took a breath, he felt the injury in his lung and remembered how he received it. Every time he took a breath, he felt Tara push him slightly aside as she stepped in front of him, heard the crack of the gun, and saw her drop, lifeless, to the ground. He'd reached out for her as he'd fallen. It hadn't mattered.

When he wasn't thinking about Tara, he found himself thinking about the son who'd been stolen from him, who'd suffered a lifetime of abuse and hatred.

He was, he had to admit, not at his best. In fact, in the recesses of his mind he had to admit that if he didn't have his children, he'd have to give serious consideration to dying. Fortunately, he had... four of them. Shit, he was still getting used to Kat. Thinking about that, however, at least brought Aurora and Will to his mind, which kept him going when he took a breath and remembered Tara's death all over again.

As Aurora came in, he considered pretend to be asleep, but it was obvious that she wouldn't care even if he was. 

"First of all, I don't have a shit ton of money. Everything I had and have went into the Byrne family coffers... currently managed by you. And the fact that you're even talking about going into debt makes me wonder just how much you've been spending."

There was a hint of a smirk on his face, but there was also exhaustion.

"And I haven't been able to sleep."

He left it at that. She was a smart kid. And frankly, he felt miserable. But he'd humor his daughter; he'd try, for her sake. But even as she sat on the bed and crossed her legs he thought of Tara doing the same thing as a child, reading to him after their father had fallen asleep. The shadow crossed his heart again. He sighed and poured two glasses, handing one to her and lifting the other to his mouth.

Aurora saw him freeze- and then it was like he wasn't there.

Because he wasn't.

_______

"You know," Bella's voice purred from the balcony as Gavin walked through the bedroom, "if you'd told me you'd get me back on a beach so soon after everything we went through in Jamaica, I never would have believed you. But you're right. This is different. And... it's nice."

Gavin sat next to her in the unoccupied chair; it was long, designed for comfortable reclining as one looked out on one of Cape Cod's most exclusive beaches. From their top floor suite, Gavin and Bella could look out at the sand and surf in comfortable anonymity, knowing no one could see them unless either Gavin or Bella walked to the balcony.

Bella was lying on her stomach, wearing only the bottom half of the new, red bathing suit she'd purchased earlier that day. Her head was tilted to the side, resting comfortably on her arms, as she continued to tan her sun-kissed back. It was so smooth, thought Gavin, so unlike his, crossed with so many scars that he'd lost count. 

Bella cracked an eye open to see that Gavin had brought a bottle of whiskey with him.

"Drinking right from the bottle, huh?" she teased. 

Gavin smirked, saying "don't move" in a soft voice as he moved toward her. He opened the bottle and poured out a tiny amount into the small of Bella's back. Leaning down, his rough tongue, not unlike a wolf's, moved slowly up her spine. He tasted the whiskey, and somehow he imagined he could taste the sun that had been gently caressing her skin all afternoon as well.

Bella spun slowly to face him, moving her lips to his ear as she whispered, "I'm sure we can find some other interesting places for you to do that."

Gavin leaned forward into his wife, trying to entice her with the idea of- 

The chair, not remotely designed to hold two people, crashed beneath them. Shocked by the fall, Gavin still manage to twist like a cat and stretch a lightening fast hand under her head to protect it. Still, they'd only fallen for a foot and a half, and after the initial shock, they found themselves laughing. Bella smirked as she climbed on top of him, caressing his cheek gently as she gazed down at him.

"What the hell am I going to do with you, Gavin?"

The question seemed to reach forward weeks, months, years. Gavin, more focused on short term pursuits, smirked.

"I'm sure you'll think of something."

_______

"Dad?.... Dad?.... Dad?"

Did he have a stroke?

"I'm fine, Aurora. That's.... that's pretty amazing whiskey. I'd say whatever you paid for it, you'll make your money there."

He raised it to his mouth again, and this time managed to avoid closing his eyes. Still, the hint of a smile was on his face.

"And I hate to break it to you, but you're not even the #1 contender here. Will's almost as good as me... and we haven't seen Volkov or Kat play, but..."

His shrug seemed to suggest that they could easily be better.

"... deal the cards."