Sam's eyes didn't shift from the poolside offenders until Rebecca got close to her and the kids again. When she did make eye contact, there was an unspoken 'ugh' moment before they both turned their attention back to the younglings. Nate's long range shot seemed to have given the kids an idea, and it wasn't long after Rebecca returned Jack's water gun that they set up a shooting gallery of sorts. They took dueling potshots at floating toys along the pool wall like they were bottles on a fence, but Rebecca was surprisingly bad at it. For once, she was glad Ronnie wasn't there and only had to defend herself to Sam.

She faired better when an adhoc game of something resembling volleyball sprang up, where they joined another family's kids in keeping a beachball airborne as long as they collectively could. Sam teasingly accused her of an unfair advantage as the tallest person playing, but Rebecca reminded Sam of times she'd lamented not getting to see her play on the college courts pre-apocalypse and that she should enjoy the near approximation.

The guys who'd so ineptly propositioned them didn't take long to leave, perhaps embarrassed after the increasingly steadfast rejections. That suited Rebecca and Sam just fine as it opened up physical and emotional space to take a breather, sitting on the edge of the pool. They watched the antics of the children in the pool and laughed periodically, though Rebecca still kept a close eye on Nate to make sure he was getting around comfortably.

During a lull in conversation, Sam caught Rebecca making a quiet disgruntled noise and lifted one eyebrow inquisitively. She silently cursed her girlfriend's occasionally inconvenient perceptiveness and sighed. "Okay, I'll say it, you're right. I apologize too much."

The end of Sam's mouth twitched a little too much for her smile to only be affection. "Well. It's good to acknowledge things so we can improve them. I love you anyway." Naturally, the way Rebecca pressed her lips into a thin line and squinted at her only amused Sam further.

When Nate made his way to the corner steps and settled for his own short break, they both relaxed visibly. Rebecca leaned back, bracing her arms behind her as she idly wiggled and splashed her toes in the water. This gave her a good angle to notice Sam watching her again.

"What? Do I have snot hanging from my nose?"

Sam scoffed. "Eeew, gross. No wonder the kids like you so much, you fit right in. And no, I was just checking out the way the water and sun angle bring out the highlights in your hair."

It was Rebecca's turn for a mocking smirk. "Eh.. Five out of ten. Better than the other chuckleheads, but you're lucky I'm already won over." Though admittedly, the comment succeeded at making her notice how Sam's wet hair had darkened to a bolder, richer red, almost ruby-like.

And that one stray droplet left Sam's hairline at the nape of her neck, ran down, and soaked into the black fabric she was wearing. Ahem.

Sam stuck her tongue out and kicked Rebecca's foot, severing her entrancement whether aware of it or not. "I dunno, dinner with your mom tonight and everything. I'd say I'm probably doing alright."

"Mmm, maybe. But bitch, if you try to take my dog in a divorce we're gonna have words. I'm talking pistols at dawn."

Sam put her hand on her chest and feigned distress, which rapidly reverted back to mocking. "Oh come on, I gave you an entire Pop Tart! With inflation and scarcity, that's easily worth visitation rights, I say."

They bantered playfully for a few more minutes, then switched to musing about the settlement's growth potential while Carmen beat both boys at a breath-holding contest. Rebecca wasn't keen about defensibility of the riverfront, despite Sam's counterpoints about medieval fortifications using rivers as an advantage. She did concede that if nothing else, it gave the residents another evacuation option — god forbid it ever be necessary — and accused Sam of just wanting to use it to flood a moat around the neighborhood.

The twangy rattling of the diving board drew Rebecca's attention as a teenager enthusiastically rebounded from it into the water, and she watched his landing contemplatively.

"Rosie..."

"Hmm?"

"Do you think I could safely, like... piggyback Nate off the diving board?"

Sam squinted at it, and Rebecca could imagine her measuring distances and doing calculus in her mind. "You'd have to make sure you had enough forward momentum... but then that might mean more abrupt drag on him when you hit the water. Maybe backwards? Eh, no, he might be under you then and that seems riskier. But...yeah, probably, if you hold onto him tight?" Sam looked back at Rebecca. "And, I think you'd blow his fucking mind. How often does a near-paraplegic kid get to feel like he's flying?"

Rebecca weighed the idea for a time, trying to decide how upset Tania would be. She ultimately arrived at 'disapprove if she was there, but not be too upset if she found out'. Nate's enthusiasm when she proposed the idea was predictably extreme.

On their first trial run, Rebecca wanted to ensure she could get a safe distance away from the end of the board even with the awkward balance and extra weight, so she carried him in front of her. That put his exuberant yell in unfortunate proximity to her ear, and she hoped Sam didn't interpret her cringe as nervousness and tease her about it.

The cold didn't hit her as hard this time around. Still, it took willpower to stave off primal panic as she sank with his extra mass, waiting an additional moment so she could reach the bottom and kick off hard. The results seemed worth it, especially given her arms were busy hanging onto Nate's legs — she was pretty sure they surfaced in less cumulative time than if she'd simply tried to swim to the surface as soon as they entered the water.

As a bonus, Nate seemed to enjoy the way their momentum carried them past the surface, resulting in extra bobs before they reached a neutral float. Apparently, all those volleyball jump workouts still paid off. That and all the stairs in her life over the last few years, alternating between living underground and four floors up.

So very many stairs.

For the second try, she transitioned him to a piggyback carry before climbing out of the pool, correctly surmising it would be easier to scale the wall ladder and carry him around to the board again. By this time several other poolgoers had noticed and cheered them on. Sam grinned at them adoringly from where she sat near the ladder — noticeably more relaxed than she was during their first attempt — and joined the cheering as Rebecca reached the end of the board.

Repeating her gambit of waiting to be deep enough for her knees to bend before pushing off led to the same sputtering cackles from Nate once they surfaced. Unfortunately, she discovered the hard launch put an uncomfortable amount of load on her windpipe as his inertia and underwater drag resisted the movement.

She solved that on the third run by getting him to reach under her arms and hook his hands over the top of her shoulders like pair of inverted backpack straps. That dive was nearly flawless, the only mishap being her rash guard shifting upon splashdown — maybe cumulatively. Once they'd surfaced, she had to tug at the hem to straighten it and vent an inconvenient trapped bubble.

By then her stamina was flagging and she started slowly towards the wall, where Sam beckoned them over. Once there, she folded her forearms across Sam's lap and lay her head down while Sam asked Nate about how much fun he was having. Sam also started running a hand over Rebecca's hair, steadying her with another on her shoulder, and getting to float like that for a bit was just heavenly.

Rebecca didn't think she'd drifted off, but she still wasn't sure just how many minutes had passed when she lifted her head, smiled at Sam, and looked around. The 'crowd', if you could even call the stragglers that, had thinned further. Logical as the sun continued its descent — with the power infrastructure literally only getting off the ground, people probably still continued ending their days early, packing dinner in before twilight. Still, Dylan had told her on the walk over that theirs would be at least a few hours, and someone would come get them if it got close.

When they rejoined the other kids, everyone spent a few minutes comparing who had the wrinkliest fingers after all the time in the water — Jack seemed to be the winner, though Sam playfully disputed the voting results. Rebecca couldn't help wondering what her own toes were going to look like by the time they got out.

After the latest lighthearted contest, Nate slowly paddled the width of the pool with a modified arms-only breast stroke. Rebecca thought back to Tania's description of how much he enjoyed the sense of freedom moving in the water brought him and dug deep, figuring she could manage a little more activity for a good cause.

The next time he got close, she lifted her chin at him in a nod. "Hey, dude. I can probably do a few more laps, as long as you don't expect to win any races."

The affectionate approval radiating off of Sam was palpable, even past Nate's excitement as Rebecca sunk down and let him latch onto her shoulders again. She left Sam mediating a bet between Carmen and Jack over... something she couldn't pick out in the excited bickering... and set off at the aquatic equivalent of a mosey in a counterclockwise loop of the pool.

Her stroke wasn't much different from what she observed Nate doing, though with the addition of small scissor kicks to boost them along with each pull of her arms. Too bad I didn't do water polo instead of v-ball... alas, no campus pool. She smiled at one of the last families on the far side as she passed, then told Nate to make sure to duck his head as they crossed under the unoccupied diving board.

He shifted a bit as he did, grasping bunched up folds of her swim shirt in his fists, then spoke as they cleared the other side of the 'underpass'. "Thanks, Miss Rebecca. You don't have to keep going if you don't want to."

As if his bashful humility was going to accomplish anything other than unintentional reverse psychology. At least she thought it was unintentional, he was smart but didn't seem the devious type. Either way, Rebecca shook her head. "Aww, don't worry about it, bud. How often do we get a chance like this, right? Gotta make the best of it as we — ack — can." She choked lightly as her snug rashguard dug into her neck, and interrupted her smooth strokes to hook a finger in the elastic collar, pulling it forward. "Careful though, if you strangle me we'll both sink and drown."

He laughed nervously, moving his loosened grip back to the tops of her shoulders. "Oops, sorry."

She chuckled as she swam onwards again. "It's okay. Just think how mad it would make Sam and your mom though. They'd probably ground us both."

His reply came after a suspicious pause. "If you told me the parental controls code on the PS4, it might not be so bad..."

Maybe he was picking up a little subterfuge somewhere, but cool auntie or not, she wasn't falling for that. "Nice try. You're still not playing Witcher and Until Dawn until you're older!" Rebecca grinned at the wordless grumbling behind her as she swam. "You're probably lucky power's limited, or you'd have burned through all four Uncharteds and Tomb Raider even faster than you did. Anyway, I'm pretty sure grounded means no video games?"

He huffed. "Jeez. I'm sorry I was excited to do something other than throw racquet and tennis balls at the wall or read, okay?"

Rebecca scoffed as soon as her chin was far enough above the water to do it safely. "Wow. The sass that comes out when your mom isn't around." Clearly, even the apocalypse couldn't stop the fledgling attitude of an almost-adolescent.

They'd neared completing the first circuit of the pool, and Sam was resting at the side again, watching the cavorting of Jack and Carmen, whatever debate between them seemingly resolved. She hadn't hoisted herself out of the pool to sit on the edge this time, instead lounging with her back against the wall and elbows lifted to rest on it, legs slowly swishing beneath her to stay in place. She greeted Rebecca with a smile as they approached. "How's it going?"

"Oh." Rebecca arched one eyebrow towards Nate with a smirk. "You know."

Sam pointedly glanced at the other kids. "Yup, sure do."

They both laughed as Rebecca passed, soon reaching the part of the pool that led to half-wading rather than swimming, where she started her wide turn. The lesser depth shifted her upright and Nate's weight to a more vertical axis, but she shrugged her shoulders farther back under his arms. Even as active as they'd been, he was still partially supported by the water so it was easier than carrying him poolside.

On the other hand, she'd been carrying him around outside of the pool, so she was relieved as they submerged again.

Not as much as she'd expected, though. Rebecca still felt surprisingly short of breath when they reached the corner after the diving board, even at the slow pace she'd maintained, so she took a moment to pay attention to various sensations in her body. Her pulse was strong in her lips, even in her cheeks a little. She could still feel her toes, she wasn't shivering, and she could feel her thumbnail against her fingertips just fine.

Oh. The damn rash guard. It was pressing against her throat again, subtly constricting the blood vessels on the side of her neck too. Even though Nate had shifted his grip as she requested, his life vest must have gradually dragged the fabric down her back. Apparently, all it took was a quarter inch of movement to cause her significant discomfort.

She glanced around — it was just them and that one family left. The mom, supervising one kid doodling with sidewalk chalk and another bouncing off the diving board, wore a triangular-topped bikini with the confidence of someone who'd been around long enough to have no fucks about other people's bullshit body issues. Rebecca's own swimsuit covered slightly more, so no judgment expected there. She was pretty sure the man on the neighboring lounge chair was snoring under his lowered sun hat, check. Jack and Nate were good kids... and they probably have more eyes for Carmen than the stodgy old aunties, right?

That all put her at ease enough to shed her rashguard, having asked Nate to hang onto the wall for a second. Aside from a brief moment where the wet fabric tried to smother her on the way past her face, she immediately breathed easier and wondered if the stretchy material had subtly hindered her breathing the whole time. Either way she felt better, so she shrugged that thought away for later, balling up the shirt and tossing it towards their belongings. It landed with a loud slop that she thought would draw Sam's attention, but she didn't even look away from the fist-sized squish ball she was lobbing back and forth with the other two kids again.

Rebecca waved Nate back on and got underway again, much more confident. The worst he could do at that point was grabbing onto one of her shoulder straps — it might mess up her stroke, but definitely not involve asphyxiation. She was so relieved that they went for another full loop of the pool before Nate undocked to join the resumed game of catch. Rebecca took part in a few rounds of it herself, and then she and Sam drifted towards the center of the pool to relax and let the kids play.

Again their hands found each other underwater, but this time it was Sam who floated on her back, gazing upwards while Rebecca bobbed alongside.

"God, this is nice," Sam said after a bit. "Did I say that already? Did you? I don't care, it's still true. I just feel so..."

Her words trailed off, so Rebecca chimed in. "Relaxed? Not overheated?" That last part didn't make much sense though, unless Sam was sensitive to all temperature extremes.

"Not dirty. No grime, no dust."

"Hah, okay. That too." Rebecca held up her hand and wiggled her fingertips towards Sam, even if she was still looking upwards. "I guess that's one upside of being completely waterlogged."

"In clear, disinfected water."

Rebecca glanced over at the kids and saw Jack holding Sam's phone up and away from Carmen, probably feuding over what song to play next. "Hey! Put it on the side and leave it on shuffle if you can't share!" Looking back at Sam, she lowered her voice again. "So is chlorine your new favorite perfume?"

"That was pretty good 'mom voice'. And, sugar, the condition you've come home in after some of your brawls, anything else smells like lilac and vanilla." She chuckled after a pause. "Though, cleaning you and Rufus up worked out pretty well for me in the long run."

Rebecca was too amused to successfully pretend she was upset. "I guess water's a thing for us, huh?"

Sam squeezed Rebecca's hand underwater, a genuine subtext of affection beneath her continued teasing. "Put a hot tub next on the list. Not just a bath — jets, bubbles." She turned her head enough to grin at Rebecca. "Now that I'd make worth your while."

"Enough." Rebecca shook her head in dismay. "You relish the fact I don't have a poker face. Don't make me blush in front of the kids."

Sam rotated upright in the water, mischief dimpling her cheeks."I would never."

"Riiiight. You wouldn't even dream of it. You're only behaving because they'd tease you just as much."

"You're already grinning like an idiot anyway."

Rebecca was saved from more jibes by Jack swimming towards them — with courteous caution, she thought. Or, that soggy mop of blond curls was getting in his eyes too much and slowing him down. She was careful to not laugh at that idea as they greeted him.

Apparently he'd been sent as an envoy to request a game of Marco Polo now that they had the pool almost entirely to themselves, and before it got too late. Sam was a good sport and offered to help Nate, but Rebecca had recuperated enough for a slow-paced game. They agreed that Sam could take a turn pushing his chair on the way back to the house instead.

Rebecca was convinced she and Nate were at a disadvantage thanks to all the noise she made splashing around with him on her back again. When it was their turn to shut their eyes, she also ran into the problem of hearing someone off in one direction while Nate would often be (loudly) urging her in another.

After a few hard-earned turns as pursuer, she found she could even the tables by using her longer legs for an all-out speed boost when slow-moving stealth failed them. She also caught on to a pattern in Sam's evasion habits — any time Rebecca and Nate were "it", Sam would submerge immediately after responding, trying to dodge past underwater and resurface elsewhere.

Advantages were not to be wasted, even in friendly competition, so Rebecca combined them right away. She picked Sam's voice out from the others and remained still, feeling for movement in the water around her legs. Abruptly lunging towards a splash that was separate from the other two players, she caught Sam by surprise. Rebecca let out a triumphant "Hah!" as she felt her fingertips make contact and opened her eyes, plunging away.

Sam called after them with playful indignance. "Hey! That doesn't count. He didn't tag me, you did with your long monkey arms!"

Rebecca turned back once they were at a safe distance. She would meet Sam's banter, but not complacently. "We're a team!"

"Right! But that doesn't mean you get to use four arms!"

Unfortunately for Jack, he was laughing so hard at the exchange that Sam was able to track him between callouts and caught him easily. His strategy seemed to involve consistently going after Carmen — easier target than the adults, or was it a sign of interest? She, in turn, was ruthless and went after whoever sounded closest with vigor, which Rebecca amusedly approved of despite being on the receiving end a few times.

Eventually Rebecca ran out of steam, and from the looks of it, Sam wasn't far behind. The next time she got tagged, Rebecca sighed, and set Nate down to float in the water. "Okay, we give up. All you kids win, the adults surrender."

Jack cheered in triumph, demanding a bemused high-five from Carmen while Nate just quietly grinned. Rebecca wasn't quite sure why he was so tired, he'd only spent the last however long yelling and waving, not frantically wading and sloshing this way and that.

Sam was clearly still catching her breath with her hands on her hips, but nodded at Rebecca. "Yeah, I second that motion. I think we've done our jobs, they'll sleep good tonight."

"Us too, but yeah. The moms should happy."

Sam grinned and wiped stray water from her face. When she looked around over her shoulder, her tone changed.

"Uh, where's our stuff?"