A month and a half later…

"So, tell me again why we're not telling Cairo we are here a day early?" Stacey asked, as they disembarked the train.

"Because she deserves the surprise after what she pulled with the whole hat thing. It's my revenge," Nick said.

"You two have the most immature relationship," Stacey sighed.

"But it's fun," Nick grinned. The assembled group consisted of Brian and Stacey, Kevin and Anna, Howie and Angela, AJ and Erika, Megan. It was a rare occasion when all of the guys had found themselves in happy relationships, and available to take a group holiday.

"So…how do we plan on getting to the house, when we are stranded in a small, strange town, and we don't know where the house is?" Erika asked.

"Seems that someone didn't think of that, now did they Nick?" Stacey said.

"Easy baby. Don't alienate the best friend," Brian warned.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry Stacey. Something'll happen, it always does, just in time to save my ass," Nick said.

"And it's such a worthy ass of being saved," Cairo's unmistakable voice said from behind. "At least from this angle it is."

"Kay! Miss me?" Nick said hopefully.

"No. Miss me?" she asked.

"No, miss me?" he asked.

"God, this is worse than when Howie and Angela play the 'No, I love you more,' game. It's disgusting guys. You saw each other three days ago. Three!" AJ exclaimed.

"There's nothing wrong with loving Angela more," Howie said.

"But I love you more," Angela said.

"You disgust me," Cairo said.

"What?"

"Nick and I will never stoop that low. That's the ultimate sign that you've become a set-in-stone, mushy, boring, predictable couple," Cairo said, as she led the group towards the two vans she had prepared for their arrival. It had been Anna, shy and quiet Anna that had tipped Cairo off to the early arrival plan, feeling that it would not be the most responsible thing for them to do so she had caved and made the call.

"You just like to torture each other with cruel, yet funny, practical jokes."

"As long as it's not predictable or mushy. Here you go, my humble guests. Your chariots await," Cairo said.

"Hey, Kay, who told you that we were coming?" Nick asked, suddenly realising that she had no way of knowing.

"A little bird," she said, as he pulled her aside as everyone else began arguing over who got shotgun.

"Just for the record, I did miss you," he said, as he kissed her. She sighed in contentment.

"Ditto," she said.

"Oh come on, will you ever let me live that down?" he protested.

"Just one question. Why is the psycho tour Nazi here?" Cairo asked, as she noticed Megan's presence.

"She missed her flight and we didn't want to leave her alone in Berlin, so we decided to make her come along. That is okay, right?" he asked, meeting her eyes.

"I suppose. But I swear, if she tries to come on to you with me in the room, we're sending her home with a black eye," Cairo warned.

* * * *

"Good god, you weren't kidding when you said that this was huge," Nick exclaimed as Cairo ushered them into the main foyer.

"Tell me about it. There are, like, three billion rooms, an attic and basement, complete with torture chamber," she informed them.

"Torture chamber? Cairo, I never knew you were into the kinky stuff," AJ said.

"I'll leave that to you, Alex. You and only you. I happen to think Erika is a nice girl. Don't corrupt her," Cairo warned.

"What's the fun in that?"

"So, what's there to do around here?" Kevin asked.

"Well, we have the stroll into the 15th century, on your left. Then we have some equestrian activities, down the path and to the right and straight on until the stables. And just past that, we have a beautiful pond, excellent for swimming, I'm told. Oh, and should any of you feel inclined to be literate during your stay here, I have an excellent store of really old English literature in the library. Just abide by the sign or suffer my wrath," she said, pointing to her newly found method of keeping her staff from disturbing her while she was writing. A sign that said "Enter," for when she wasn't writing, and the other which said "Your death awaits you," for when she was busy. So far, it was working quite well, but she knew that the close knit group may not feel the need to give her privacy.

"What have you been doing to keep yourself occupied?" Brian asked.

"Oh, so you think that the only time I have a life is with you guys? I do other things, other than following you guys around dressed like a freak, you know. Actually, I've found this old-"

"Carrie, this is a beautiful old place you have here. Whatever are you going to do with it?" Megan interrupted.

"It's Cairo. And I don't really know yet. That's still to be decided. Anyway, Miriam will show you guys to your rooms so that you can settle in and stuff, and then later, we can all go into town or something. There's this great little pub," Cairo said. Miriam dutifully led the others away as Cairo trapped Nick as he moved to follow them away.

"You, my friend, get to stay right here," she said.

"And if I protest?"

"Well, I do have a torture chamber downstairs…you won't protest for long," she laughed. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him, making up for the three days they had been apart.

"So, how do you like my casa?" she asked, as she led him outside, so he could have the full view of the house.

"It's just wonderful, Kay. It's absolutely beautiful here."

"Want to buy it?" she asked hopefully.

"Don't like it that much, Kay. Let's go down to the pond," he brushed her off as they walked down the worn path that led to the small pond. The path circled a good part of the house, and it took about ten minutes for them to reach it. As they walked by the terrace of Cairo's bedroom, Nick stopped suddenly.

"You must have a magnificent view from your window. The terrace must be fabulous," he said. Cairo frowned.

"How did you know that that is my bedroom?" she asked.

"You mean it's not?" he asked as it was his turn to frown.

"No, it's just that I never mentioned where I was sleeping at all, and you just picked it out perfectly. That's kind of weird," she explained. Nick looked thoughtful for a moment.

"It's just that it's the most logical place for you. It's obviously the master bedroom. If you weren't sleeping there, then you should be," he said, dismissing it. But Cairo was still perplexed by it. It wasn't the master bedroom; she had liked that one better, so she had decided to use it instead. She brushed it off as just being paranoid, and they continued on their walk.

Sitting at the edge of the pond, they gazed out at the water reflecting the sun, and a soft breeze washed over them. It felt so right to be with him there, to watch the water ripple and lap the shore, that Cairo turned towards him and kissed him spontaneously.

"I'm glad you're here with me."

"And I'm glad that you're glad that I'm here," he said with a mischievous smile.

"And I'm glad that you're glad that I'm glad that you're here," she said as they started to quote a routine made famous by George Burns and Gracie Allen.