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The hyena laughed gently. "Looks like you had your furniture rattled a little, tiger. Think you can sit up?"

Carefully accepting the helping paws, the tiger moved into a sitting position on the hot sand, trying to check his flight suit for... His paw touched his muscular, cream-furred chest, moved toward his head - no headset, no flight suit, just bathing trunks, nothing... His tail lashed suddenly against the sand, and the hyena looked at him worriedly.

"Night? Are you okay?"

Night. Like a nickname? Or a name. His name, except that his name was ... his name was Lieutenant... He looked up into the hyena's face again. Donovan. The hyena's name was Donovan. He wasn't part of the Snake... the what? _Snake..._From tip to toes, something rippled through him, made him cry out just once, a barking sound of surprise, or shock, or a gasping of breath.

"Night?" The hyena knelt next to the tiger, his paws upon shoulders, shaking gently. "Night, talk to me, are you all right? Are you choking? Can you breathe all right?"

Finally, the tiger managed to put a paw to his lover's arm. "Okay," he said shakily, "I'm okay, just... think I got the wind knocked out of me or something." He looked around himself quickly, seeing other furs watching, the others they were playing volleyball with, the other guys that they'd met down here on the beach, the slim, nimble otter who jumped as if air were like the water he swam in so gracefully, and the tall, well-formed giraffe (said he was an artist, maybe?), and the lithe young Malaysian pup with the never-ending smile, and the brown-furred wolf with the shoulder-length black headfur and orange Hawaiian shirt, watching from the sidelines. The tiger was remembering, remembering that he and Donovan were on vacation together, that this happy summer beach was the reward for a long period of testing at work, a big project, finally on its way to being finished, and this was the long-awaited break. Two full weeks of sun, sand, surf, and with Donovan in the picture, no doubt another short "s-word" in the sweet summer nights. If there's one thing Night knew after all these months with the hyena, it was that the pup did love his lovemaking.

Something in the tiger's mind reached outward, as if flipping back through the pages of a well-loved book, and he remembered his two and a half decades and change of growing up in a Midwestern city, going to school, getting his degree, working on certifications and Masters-level classes, getting his job, doing his work, living in his apartment, with Donovan having nearly moved in, they were getting along so well together, and the project and the vacation, all of the years, the people, the memories...

Night shook his head. Points for style, after all; he was a cat, mustn't let himself look bad in front of everyone else. "Maybe I need to get out of the heat for a little while." He smiled as he stood up and faced the hyena. "A nice cooling shower, perhaps. Wanna scrub my back?"

Donovan grinned back. "That's not usually the way I'm facing, but I'm adaptable."

"WTMI!" bemoaned one of the other volleyballers. "Hell, not enough!" cried another. A third chimed in with "Can I run the camera?" The wolf watched, said nothing.

Laughing, the hyena took the tiger's paw and led him back to their room at the resort. "Thanks for the game, guys! We'll catch you later!"

"You've already caught one!" came the last jeer, and the game began to find a new start with the various males already in the area. This was the "gay side" of the beach, Night remembered. Lots of eye candy, and no one minded the casual flirt, much less the audacious proposal. A more fun crowd to play with, so to speak.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Donovan asked softly, still watching Night carefully.

The tiger chuckled. "It'll take more than a smack in the head with a volleyball to take me down, puppy," he said affectionately. "Delayed stress response, eh? Still haven't shaken the job out of my head yet."

"No talking about work," Donovan said in mock severity. "Break the rules, and I'll send you to supper without bed."

"A horrible fate, to be sure!" Night opined.

They got to their room just in time; another few seconds longer, and the hyena might have started stripping in the hallway. As it was, they made it to the shower quickly enough to escape any potential charges of public indecency. Sand was washed away, backs were scrubbed, and other exercises were conducted which reassured both parties that all systems were in perfect working order. Between that and the volleyball, it was a toss-up (pardon the pun) as to which workout was more aerobic. Finally getting back to bed, they lay in each other's arms, letting their breathing slow and become normal again.

"So," Night murred into the hyena's sensitive ear, "think I'm suffering any residual brain damage?"

"No pain where there's no sense." Donovan giggled as Night tickled him mercilessly for nearly half a minute. "Okay, okay! I give!"

The tiger took him back into his arms. "Yes, you do, and very well, may I add."

"Why, thank you, Mr. Tiger sir." The hyena wriggled happily in Night's embrace, then sobered a little. "Are you really okay, luv?"

"You're a worry-wart."

"An anxious pimple? Ew!" Donovan grinned briefly. "Look, it's me who watched over you when you were in hospital those several days. So I'm going to keep worrying."

Night sighed with only slightly exaggerated exasperation. "They wouldn't have let me go if they weren't sure I was okay. Besides, they had to soak the insurance as much as they possibly could; if they didn't make a big profit, they'd lose their hospital license. Or at least their stock-holders."

Tenderly, the hyena stroked the tiger's long dark brown headfur. "Night... it scared me. You were in a coma for nearly two days. I was freaked out of what few spots I've got, and I don't ever want to get that close to losing you ever again. I know you're not ready to commit - we've had that conversation, and I won't push - but I really do want to be with you, quite possibly forever. I love you, and therefore I'm going to worry about you." He grinned. "So get used to it."

"Well, for what it's worth, spotty-britches, I happen to be rather fond of you too. And it wasn't a coma."

"Do I have to show you the hospital reports?"

Night shook his head. "It was just stress."

The hyena's ears splayed enough to make it look as if he were about to unleash a vicious growl. "Don't apologize for those bastards."

"I'm not apologizing for anyone. It was just stress at work, that's all..."

"It was that damned project, and I don't want to talk about it right now." Donovan rolled over to face away from the tiger, as if to slam the lid on the subject. The tiger hesitated, knowing well his lover's famous temper and his opinions of the particular workplace in question. He reached out to apologize. The young male grumbled, but didn't object further as Night pulled him close again.

"Donovan, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to put a kink in your tail." He nibbled the hyena's neck gently. "You've got enough kinks already."

"It's got to stop."

"What's got to stop?"

"I'm serious, Night," the hyena said to the air in front of him, so softly that the tiger almost didn't hear. "There's something wrong about that place."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't want you to go back."

"What?"

"Go back."

"I can't hear you."

"Kovach."

"What?"

"Kovach, snap out of it. Wake up."

The tiger's eyes whipped open. The ceiling above him was metallic, the air around him different, too dry, almost crackling. No beach smell, no ocean smell; some sweat, some chemicals like disinfectants, unguents, ointments, something electric.

"I think he's coming around."

The voice was familiar, yet... He squeezed his eyes against his will, screwed them up tightly, felt a ripple course through from tip to toes, fought the sensation briefly, fought to remember what the beach smelled like (what beach?), what the hyena smelled like (what... you mean Tolliver? Completely different type of pup...). He grunted as the rippling came through again, stronger, like being poured through a filter, like being pressed through a wringer, like...

Lieutenant Kovach snapped his eyes open and saw Sumner's bulldog face hovering almost too close.

"Back among the living, Kovach?"