That doesn't last all night.

When we exited the car, I found a small squarish black bag with a "California Highway Patrol" logo in the back of the trunk. I reached out my hand to grab it when Maria admonished me gently and grabbed it herself with a smile.

"I'll take my bag. Nothing personal, Guapo, I just prefer to have control of my own luggage."

"That implies a few things."

"That I don't trust all my co-workers? Nope. Not a bit. Fastest way to get a promotion is for there to be a sudden opening." Maria ran her hand along my back, and tugged me along a bit. "Sometimes it feels like that's the only way anybody gets promoted."

"Do you work for the CHP or the Galactic Empire?" I snorted.

"Uniform's the same color these days, hell if I know." Maria laughed. "At least they don't make us wear full face covering heads up display helmets. Yet."

The screen door at the top of the small wooden staircase flew open wildly to reveal the smiling face of Nikki, a bit more made up than I remembered her state when I left the cabin. Her arms were spread wide, and behind her I could see the open door of the cabin itself and the soft sound of what sounded like seventies slap bass.

"Maria!" Nikki's face lit up and she threw her hands in front of her dramatically, hands turned downwards. "Ok Officer, I confess! I did it! I'm Kaila!"

"No! I'm Kaila!" Came another shout from the cabin, this time clear in Kaila's voice. I wouldn't have thought much of the joke at that point if Helen hadn't also chimed in from the cabin, along with Charlotte.

"What are they doing?"

Maria looked at me curiously as Kaila called "I'm Kaila and so is my husband!" loudly from the cabin.

"Ok, that's... who came up with that joke? " I laughed, looking at Nikki carefully again as she stood at the doorway, her hands still thrown out dramatically.

"Ain't tellin!" Nikki giggled happily.

"Ok... so uh... **** and booze checked off. Should grab my notepad. Clearly everybody's waiving the fifth." Maria noted.

"I'll tell you everything! Just don't throw me in de briar cabin... patch... fuck I screwed up da line." Nikki stepped back from the door way and magnanimously held it open. "So... things got a little interesting while you were gone, but nothing we couldn't handle."

"Oh really?" I asked, my eyes taking in the main room. Three women lounged happily, my wife and Charlotte at the table, Helen again poking at the fire with an intent expression.

"I uh... I don't want to get my name. That would just be... tacky." Kaila suggested from the table as I entered.

"Ok, before you get too involved here, Hi! Uhm... mind if I use your shower and get changed into something a little less grimy?" Maria waved at the group.

I grasped Maria by the shoulders and steered her towards the bathroom. When she spotted the fixtures, she took over and walked directly to it.

"Thanks... just be a few... minutes." She nodded, and I turned back to Kaila who was toying with a small piece of paper at the table.

"I thank she'd look mahvelous with a sleeve." Charlotte commented, running her hand along my wife's arm as the two of them sat there.

"A sleeve? Let me see that. You know that's quite a lot of pain." I moved to the table and finally I recognized the music. Old school funk. Stuff I never listened to, and it was coming right from one of the phones that sat on the counter. Apparently one of the girls had a pair of speakers which had been plugged into the item, and the soft music was a nice compliment to the smell of weed I could absolutely take in. And... cookies? I definitely smelled cookies.

"Did you actually make food?" I asked, looking at the stove. The sight of a couple of racks of slightly burnt cookies sitting on the burners was cute, I had to admit.

"It was kind of a mutual effort." Helen spun the fireplace poker in her palm, adjusting one of the logs and sending another blast of warmth through the cabin. "Had the idea to use a chocolate bar and a hammer to make the chocolate chips since we already had everything else."