Five and a half years had passed since the night of the storm that had taken two brave scientists’ lives. Will and Tracy had published their book, and after talks with Roger’s girlfriend and Grey’s family, they had decided to put the proceeds toward a conservation fund for orca whales in the North Pacific. The book sold millions of copies and Will got a lot of offers - movie deals, further book deals, research grants were thrown at him like prizes, and after five years Will still didn’t feel like he deserved a prize for what had happened that night. He had come to terms with the wildness of the ocean, and the unpredictability of fate, but he would never feel like a hero.

Of all the offers, the one that tempted Will the most was the opportunity to head back to Alaska and check in on his pod from all those years ago once more. The university wanted an updated report on the effect of sea levels and oceanic temperature changes on the nomadic orcas.

They only wanted him to do one summer of study, which was the main reason he considered it. Lisa was entering kindergarten soon, and Jacob, their two-year-old son, needed a lot from him. He hated the thought of leaving his family, and he wasn’t sure if Logan would be willing to go back to Alaska after all those years. The man had really settled into his role as the alpha of his town, and Will had to admit to himself that he’d gotten used to their cozy life on the coast of New Zealand, too. Could he brave the cold, deadly Bering Sea once more, even in warmer summer months? He was five years older and softer, having been working from home, raising his children, not training for field research on rough seas.

Part of him was afraid, but not as much as the part of him that felt the sea calling. He wanted to see orcas again. He craved adventure.

How could he bring it up with Logan? Logan had left that part of his life behind for him, for their family. It seemed insensitive to bring up what he had lost. Although Will hadn’t doubted Logan’s dedication to him since they’d gotten married, a piece of Logan was still married to the Bering Sea, and always would be. Will had accepted that about him when he’d fallen in love with him. It had been tragic when Logan had been forced to give up the dangerous seasonal work he loved for his omega and his unborn child. Will was honestly a little bit scared to remind Logan of what he’d lost.

However, Will had made it a policy to be honest with those he loved. Logan had always gotten the truth from him, and that hadn’t failed Will yet.

The sun had been down for several hours, dinner had been eaten and dishes washed, and Will heard Jacob and Lisa splashing in the tub as Logan’s deep, growly voice read Alice in Wonderland. His husband, Will had discovered, was a master of the multitask.

“‘Take some more tea,’ the March Hare said to Alice very earnestly,’” Logan read, as Will leaned his slender body against the bathroom door and gazed in at his family. He’d been told (by his mother, probably) that after a while, the adoration he felt for his husband would fade, but it hadn’t yet. When he watched his husband reading to their beautiful daughter and son, his heart soared with love just as it had five years previously. He could stay there forever, he thought to himself, and listen to Logan read until their children turned to prunes in the tub.

“Daddy!” Lisa cried when she saw him, interrupting Logan’s story.

Will smiled bashfully. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

Logan glanced at his watch. “It’s getting late, anyway,” he admitted, marking his page in the book and shutting it.

“Nooo!” Lisa cried, but Logan chuckled and set the book aside. He dipped his fingers into the water.

“We’ve been reading for an hour, Lisa. The water is cold.”

“It’s not cold! Jake isn’t cold! I’m not cold! One more chapter, Papa, pleaaaaase,” she begged.

Jacob hadn’t been listening to the book, or paying attention to the temperature of the water. Instead, he was, with scientific concentration, testing which bath toys he could, or could not fit inside of his toddler-sized mouth, and if they did fit, he would try again several minutes later, just to make sure that hadn’t changed.

“Once you’re in bed, I’ll read the rest of that chapter,” Will suggested as a compromise.

Logan flashed him an unbelievably handsome smile, and Will felt himself melt like a schoolboy. He grabbed a towel and scooped Jacob out of the water while Logan encouraged Lisa to help clean up the bath toys.

Will took their son down the hall to the nursery. He dried the squirmy toddler to put him in a new pair of pull ups.

“Daddy, Daddy let me go!” Jacob demanded, but Will quickly caught the boy before he could run out of the room and into the hall.

“It’s bedtime, Jacob,” he told his son, and picked him up, holding him with significant difficulty on his hip as he tugged out pajama pants, and then tried to find Jacob’s shirt.

“No bed! No sweep time!” Jacob told him stubbornly, glaring at him with a furrowed brow and pouting lip. Will smiled, immediately reminded of Logan.

“I’m sorry, Jake, but it’s too late for you to be up. Everyone has to sleep at night.”

“NO SWEEP!” his toddler screamed in his ear.

Will winced. “No yelling,” he said, softening his voice and hoping that Jacob would learn to do the same. Eventually.

It was too late. Jacob had begun his bedtime tantrum, crying hysterically as Will put him in his favorite dinosaur pajamas and placed him gently into his crib. He’d done this nearly every night for the last few months, but Will knew he would miss it one day, and he tried to remind himself of that every time those terrible screams became overwhelming. One day, Jacob would be a man of his own, who had no interest in dinosaur pajamas and didn’t need to be put to bed. The toddler years could only last so long. Even Lisa seemed so grown up.

Lisa ran into the room in her own pajamas, followed quickly by Logan.

“We came to say goodnight to Jacob,” he said, and Will was comforted by the understanding gaze his husband gave him. They were in it together, tantrums and all.

“Don’t cry,” Lisa told her baby brother through the bars of his crib, as he held them tight and screamed, shaking it violently.

Logan leaned down and kissed his son’s forehead, and then Will shut off the light, so that only the boy’s fish-shaped nightlight shone in the darkness, and shut the door almost all the way.

He smiled at the Captain’s Quarters sign on the nursery. Lisa had used it for three years, and then she’d wanted a princess bedroom with a real bed, and the new baby had taken over as Captain. As Jacob’s cries became quieter, more tired, Will felt excitement at the thought of getting to know their son as he grew.

They took Lisa to her bedroom and she climbed into her bed, excited for Will to read the rest of the story. Logan handed Will the book and sat with him, his strong arm around Will, cradling him.

Will found the bookmark Logan had left and continued the story in his own ‘Alice’ voice.

“‘I've had nothing yet,’ Alice replied in an offended tone, ‘so I can't take more.’”

* * *

If someone had told Logan, a decade ago, long before his brave, compassionate omega had landed aboard Seawolf, that one day he would be sitting in a pink princess-themed bedroom with his five-year-old daughter, listening to his husband read Alice in Wonderland while his toddler cried himself to sleep down the hall, he wouldn’t have believed it. Yet, in that exact moment, the idea of being back on a crabbing boat, sliding along an ice-rink ship deck and tossing about huge steel cages, seemed even crazier. He had lived that lifestyle for so long he hadn’t been able to imagine a life without it. Maybe one day, he’d feel the same about being a father. He was already beginning to.

Will didn’t even finish the chapter before Lisa fell asleep. With the prolonged bath, they’d all had a late night. Down the hall in the Captain’s Quarters, screams of rage had been replaced with almost-silent baby snores.

Logan tucked her in and kissed her pink cheeks, brushing back her soft brown hair. She was so peaceful when she slept, angelic and innocent, which was very different from her usual routine of non-stop energy and mischief. As he touched her curls, he thought she looked exactly like Will.

Will took his hand and led him out of the room. Logan shut off the light as he left his sleeping daughter, sneaking out as quietly as possible. He kissed Will passionately in the hall.

“Do you hear that?” he whispered. “Silence.”

“Sweet, sweet silence,” Will agreed.

Will seemed thoughtful, so Logan led his husband downstairs and went to put on the kettle.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked, and Will sat at the island counter, folding his slender arms over the granite.

“I got another offer,” Will said.

“Oh,” Logan replied, keeping his tone deliberately neutral.

Most of the offers were either insulting, or would take Will far away for a very long time. They hadn’t given most of them much consideration at all, but every time Will brought one up, Logan had the irrational fear that his husband would be set on running away to Africa for three years and he wouldn’t be able to stop him.

“I want to talk about it,” Will said slowly. “Can you keep an open mind?”

Logan smirked at his omega.

“Of course,” he replied. “Talking is just talking, right?”

“Right,” Will said, and Logan could sense his nervousness. This one must be tempting. “Exactly.”

“So, what’s the offer?” Logan asked, as he reached for tea mugs.

“A summer in Alaska,” Will explained.

Logan listened with an open mind, like he’d promised, and those words intrigued him, honestly. A summer wasn’t so bad, and Alaska would always hold a special space in his heart.

“Oh?” Logan prompted.

“Two months, actually, July and August. The pay is good, of course, but that’s not the main appeal. They were hoping I could write an update on Cupid’s pod, and what impact the recent climate changes have had on them.”

“Well,” Logan admitted, “That sounds right up your alley. Do you want to go? Do you miss it?”

Will hesitated when Logan looked at him, but Logan wasn’t saying that just for Will’s sake. It really was the best offer Will had gotten so far. Logan remembered how passionate Will had been when he’d met him, how desperately they’d worked to save Cupid from the poachers they’d met on their way back to port that year. He couldn’t blame him for wanting to go back.

“I do,” Will finally sighed. “But I would miss you and the kids more. I don’t want to lose two months with them, either. Soon Lisa will be in school, and...I just don’t know.”

Will’s points were completely valid. Logan could imagine Will being very lonely in Alaska for two months, if they stayed there. However, he didn’t see that as the only option.

“You know…the kids are old enough to travel. I wouldn’t mind heading back to Alaska. Maybe we could take a trip on Seawolf. We could show Lisa and Jacob what a real boat is like.”

They had a boat. It was just a small motorboat they used for day trips in the marina, but the kids loved it. They were both strong swimmers already. Logan would love to take them out to see the orcas.

“Seawolf?” Will asked. “I know you never wanted to sell it, but Logan, won’t it be a pile of rust by now?”

Logan shook his head as he poured boiling water over their tea bags and watched blood orange clouds flow forth to fill their mugs.

“I’ll clean her up. Redo her as a leisure vessel. We have the money.”

He didn’t look to see Will’s expression until he turned to hand him his tea. To his surprise, the man seemed happy, joyous, even.

“You really want to come?”

Logan felt his lips spread into a grin, showing Will his teeth. He pecked his husband on the cheek.

“Yes. Of course I do. Alaska is my second home, love.”

Will set down his mug and threw himself into Logan’s arms. Logan squeezed Will against his own body and inhaled his addicting scent.

“I have to go tell them,” Will said suddenly, pulling away to look into Logan’s eyes. Logan hadn’t seen him so excited since they’d found out Will was pregnant with Jacob. It would have been more than worth the trip to Alaska just to see Will so happy.

“Go, send them an email,” he encouraged. “I’ll be here.”

* * *

Sun poured over the shiny bow of the newly renovated Seawolf. Her letters were painted in fresh blue script across the side, where she gleamed, impossibly clean and white. Will had never seen her like this before, but from the look of nostalgia on Logan’s handsome, scruffy face, she had been restored to the way she’d looked on her maiden voyage.

“Daddy, boat!” Jacob cried in excitement. He loved boats, just like his papa. Will lifted him into his arms so that he could get a better look at her, sitting pretty at dock.

“That’s Papa’s boat. Our boat. Seawolf.”

“Woof,” Jacob commented, and Logan chuckled next to him.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

“Papa, is it called Seawolf because we’re wolves?” Lisa asked Logan, gazing at the large boat thoughtfully.

Will smiled down at his daughter. Every day, she surprised him with her sharp mind.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Logan told her. “You wanna get on board?”

“Yeah!” she cried.

Logan showed them around the ship. Will shook his head in amazement.

“It’s not that different,” he admitted. Everything was new, and there was more space now that all the fishing equipment was gone, but the ship was almost exactly as he’d remembered it, only brighter, cleaner, and warmer.

“This is where Daddy and Papa met,” Logan explained to their children, as he took them out on deck. “Your Daddy and Aunt Tracy were studying orcas and got caught in a storm.”

“Can we see the orcas, Daddy?” Lisa asked Will, and Will gave her an adventurous smile.

“We can certainly try.”

They all went up to the wheelhouse, and Logan left port, taking them out to the open ocean. Will watched his husband turn off their sonars and watch the water closely. He took the children out onto the deck.

As if by fate, it didn’t take them long to spot a leaping pod of orca whales splashing in the distance. Will noticed that Logan let them have their space, but parked the boat close enough that they could watch.

“Daddy, orcas, look!” Lisa cried in excitement. “Look, Jake!”

Will lifted the young boy onto his shoulders so he could see, and was delighted to hear him gasp.

“They’re really big, Daddy,” Lisa said, her eyes glued to the natural display.

Logan came up behind them, and he put Lisa on his own broad shoulders. Will glanced over at his husband, and took his hand.

In the distance, a huge orca with a distinctive pattern that Will recognized landed in the water with a huge splash. Cupid was where he belonged, enjoying the sunny day with his family, and so was Will. The Bering Sea was at peace.