Nic turned to James, glaring at him a little.

James responded with a wave of water and a smirk.

Nic's frown deepened a little, still glaring.

So Laurel grabbed Nic's head, kissed him deeply on the lips and then splashed him with a laugh. James chuckled.

Nic blinked, still not getting it. But after a moment he gave Laurel a little splash.

Laurel grinned and flicked some water at Nic's face. James wasn't so gentle as a huge wave of water crashed towards Nic.

Nic wiped off his face, getting annoyed again. All this splashing was pointless.

James suddenly taskled Laurel, pulling her down into the water. Both of them came up laughing.

That didn't seem to sit very well with Nic, but he didn't try to stop James.

When James finally got off of Laurel, he moved to tackle Nic.

Nic didn't let him, knocking James back into the water easily.

So Laurel tried to tackle Nic, thinking he was finally playing a bit.

Nic let Laurel tackle him, but he still wasn't getting it.

Laurel gave him a noogie under the water.

Nic let her, not struggling back.

Laurel laughed as they surfaced, "You're supposed to fight back a little," she tried to explain as she hugged him.

Nic still didn't look like he got it, but he hugged her back.

Laurel yelped as James came up from underneath and grabbed her around the waist. She started laughing and tried to wiggle free.

Nic started glaring at James again, but didn't interfere. He was starting to look really ticked off.

Laurel laughed as she finally got free... and then she saw Nic's face. Her smile fell away as she reached out and stroked his cheek, "Hey..." she murmured, not liking how ticked off he looked.

James spit some water at Nic's face.

Nic closed his eyes and wiped the water off his face again. When he opened his eyes it looked like he wanted to punch James' lights out. But instead, he started to get out of the pool.

Laurel looked between James and Nic for a moment and then something seemed to don on her... and she started to panic. She followed Nic right out of the pool, leaving James floating by himself.

Nic kept walking. It looked like he might be heading for his room.

Laurel followed right behind him.

Nic kept walking, either ignoring Laurel or not realizing she was there. When he got to his room, he tried to close the door behind him.

Laurel wedged herself inside after him.

Nic refused to look at Laurel as he grabbed a towel and started drying himself off.

Laurel paused for a moment before her panic welled up and words gushed out, "I'm sorry I was just playing because it's fun and I know you don't normally play but I thought it might help you relax a little and James was just messing around he didn't mean anything and we weren't laughing at you we were laughing because we were playing we weren't making fun of you or splashing you to be mean or anything like that and you've got to believe me!" she took a deep breath, getting more upset the more she talked, "And I'm sorry it made you upset that was the last thing I wanted to do I thought it would be fun but I guess it's not fun for you so we won't do it again, okay?"

Nic didn't say anything as she started to change into his regular clothes.

"Please don't be upset, I really don't want you to be upset!" Laurel pleaded, "I didn't mean anything, what made you upset? Because I was playing with James? Are you jealous?"

Nic kept changing. As soon as he finished and slipped some shoes on he started out the door again.

So Laurel slowly sat on his bed, watching Nic leave with tired eyes.

So Nic left, heading for the gun range.

Laurel cussed Nic out quietly after he had left. Then she went over to the small desk, writing a note on a piece of paper. Then she stood and slowly walked out, heading to the docks.

Nic spent a few hours at the gun range cooling off before making his way back to his room and finding the note.

"Confusing Dirtclod!

I'll be back when I'm done calming down.

-L"

Nic cussed as punched the wall. Then he cussed again as he drew back his hand to find bloody knuckles and a small dent in the wall. Why did he feel like this? How could he make it stop?

It was about an hour later when Laurel's boat clipped up to the docks.

--

Wolfe pulled away from Raven, "Have you ever seen a sunset at sea?" he asked.

Nic wasn't there to greet her. He was still in his room.

--

Raven shook his head.

Laurel figured that was where he was. She slowly made her way to his room and knocked on the door lightly.

--

"It's beautiful," he told Raven, "But don't push me overboard."