"I'll be all right. If it was a bad illness or poison, I would have felt it right away...I didn't." Léan reached for her hands, and held one with both of his. "I will be fine. I promise."

"If you say so..." Glory replied. She didn't like the idea of him not doing anything about it, but she couldn't make him do anything if he didn't want to.

"I will go in the water when my father isn't a threat, all right?" Léan murmured, nodding. "Right now...he is. And I don't want to be near him. Cool sea water would feel nice, but...it isn't worth getting hurt or killed over..."

"I just worry about you," Glory said as she cuddled a bit closer to him.

"...I believe this is usually the other way around," Léan chuckled, amused. "Isn't it you who always tells me not to worry? We've switched roles."

Glory grinned a bit.

"Yeah, well... I can't be the confident one all the time. Sometimes it's your turn."

"I'm not confident in the least..." Léan complained, scratching his head. "Oh, well...I'm confident enough to know I'll be all right for now, I suppose...that is enough."

"Alright," Glory said, cuddling with him.

Léan closed his eyes, intending to relax again, when he perked up, listening intently. He was hearing something, faintly.

Glory noticed that he'd perked up and looked at him.

"What's up?" she asked.

Léan held up a hand, noiselessly asking her to wait. He listened for a few more seconds and then snickered...but quickly frowned. "Aaahh...I think our shark friend wandered back up here," he realized, amused. "He bit my father before, in Hawaii...remember? They're chasing each other around. I think we had better break it up. My father is afraid of adult sharks...and since our shark is starting to grow bigger..."

Glory couldn't help but giggle a bit, but she sat up.

"Alright, I'll go out and see what I can do," she said.

"...Actually, it might be easier for you to cajole him into going into the tank, in here..." Léan realized. "If he thinks our shark is going to keep coming back..."

"I'll see what I can do. I'm not about to bother Viktor and Curry at such an unholy hour, but I'll see if I can't get your father to agree." Getting up, Glory made her way out to the beach. She was pleased to find that she didn't have any problems seeing anymore. Grinning a bit, she went to sit on her rock to see what was going on.

There was rapid movement in the water. Betelgeuse shot out from under the rocks, and was being...semi-playfully...chased by the shark. The shark had grown tremendously since the last time he'd come to shore. It looked like this was a Great White. He didn't seem to like Betelgeuse. He was baring his teeth at him as he chased him.

Glory couldn't help it, she laughed a little.

"Now that's karma right there," she said. She contemplated for a moment how to get the shark's attention, since they never gave him a name.

Betelgeuse continued his swimming, driving the shark around in circles. He was getting tired of fleeing, and, though he was frightened of large sharks, was contemplating killing his pursuer.

After a moment, Glory decided she'd watched long enough and quickly undressed so she could jump into the water. It felt weird to change form, but she ignored it, putting herself between him and the shark.

"Easy, sweet thing," she said gently to the shark. She knew it would recognize her, even if it took a moment.

The shark tried to get past her at first, not recognizing her. Then, he sniffed a bit and calmed down, pressing against her shoulder with his nose in recognition.

Betelgeuse's hair was standing on end. He looked even more threatening underwater, with his long hair pooled out behind him like black flames.

Glory petted the shark affectionately.

"It's about time you came back, sweetness," she said. "I was wondering where you'd gotten to." She turned a little to look at Betelgeuse. "I think you remember our little friend here, from Hawaii."

Betelgeuse instinctively grabbed his tail, holding it close to him for protection. There was a small, healing chunk of missing scales near the back of his tail. He didn't say a word. He had a bitter expression on his face.

"I figure this is just karma," Glory said as she let the shark go where it wanted, "but if you want, I have a place where the shark can't get to you."

"Betelgeuse's eyes narrowed. "I don't want to be anywhere near your filthy nest," he spat, immediately. His shoulders flew up to his chin, and his hands balled into fists. He was a violent man, after all. He was violent to everyone...

Except his wife.

"Okay, you know what?" Glory said. "At this point, I think you owe me. We wanted a quiet weekend to ourselves, and you decided to show up and ruin it. Then I gave up more of my non-existant weekend to start digging up information on the idiot in the Gulf. And now I got our shark off your tail." She crossed her arms. "You owe me a little bit of cooperation, at least."

Betelgeuse, who didn't like being talked down on in any way, straightened himself up, so that he seemed bigger than he already was, looming slightly over her. "The only way you will drag me in there is if you find someone strong and stupid enough to try it!" he challenged, bitterly.