"Amazing, 'tis," Marianna said. She was behind the bar at Club Calypso, mixing the occasional drink as her sister Daniela entertained the crowd. Dream and UPChuck, newly married and still moon-eyed over each other, looked up vaguely. "We're all back, right where we were a year ago. Well, almost."

Dream nodded. Everyone who'd been at the Club a year ago had returned, excepting Pez... and of course, there were people present who hadn't been around a year ago. The population of Calypso Beach alone had nearly doubled, despite the casualties of the Frogwar. Sometimes Mari regretted that she hadn't gotten further with the captain of that starship, but by the time the war was over, she'd completely fallen for Alan. Alan, who right now was by the door where she'd placed him a year ago, keeping out the undesirables... how was she to know that he'd actually been one of the undesirables?

Up in the birdcage, Suki was swinging dreamily. Her return had been a true surprise. "So I'm not actually a goddess. It was fun for a while, anyway. I lost ten pounds on that high-banana diet, too," she'd said upon entering the Club last night.

Doreen, six months pregnant and trying to prevent swollen ankles, was sitting behind the bar drying glasses. Mari swallowed a giggle as she thought about how a few months ago, she'd been in the same spot... except she'd had a husband worrying about her.

Frogman, much to everyone's chagrin, had followed Doreen back to Layla:). (Marianna had taken to calling him "the frog formerly known as Prince.") He was now sitting alone at a table in the front corner, tossing back brandys like they were going out of style. The courts were being no help at all in getting rid of him, as Frogman had bribed them to retract his exile. The only hold-out on the City Council had been Dava.

The blue-haired wizard was currently in the Queen's booth (Mari still didn't understand why he liked to hang out with Daniela, but to each his own), with his "intern," former FBI agent Emma. They were getting along very well, and had actually gone public with their affair... never mind that they'd decided on that after Reba Beirut's photos had come out in the International Inquisitor. Dava's current project was getting Frogman kicked out of Layla:) yet again, or at least obtaining a restraining order against him on Doreen's behalf.

"Mari-an-na," sang Dream. "You still awake there?"

"Mmm, quite. Just thinking."

"You? Think?" said UPChuck, raising one eyebrow. Mari punched him in the arm.

"As I was saying," Dream said impatiently, "you have to postpone the dance contest. We aren't ready to defend our title."

"Hey, I got a great idea!" Mari cried. "Since we've got a Dancin' Queen, we need a royal court. So the categorical winners, like ballroom or pole or whatever, get to be Lords and Ladies of the Dance!"

"Really? I get to be Lord of the Dance?" UPChuck asked eagerly. Mari and Dream dissolved into giggles. "What? What is-- hey! I get it now! That's not funny!"

"UPChuck in tights!" Mari shrieked. People started looking over at that. Doreen had started listening in and was shaking hard trying not to laugh. Finally, for no reason at all except that laughter is contagious, the entire Club erupted in wild, pointless laughter. Only Daniela's new boyfriend, recently arrived from New York, was not laughing-- he was looking on in semi-fear.

"C'mon, Joey," Dani said to him between snorting giggles. "Get with it!"

"He doesn't get it," Coli giggled to Teff.

"How can he not get it?" Teff answered. "Even Pez got it, and Emma gets it, and Alan, and they aren't native."

"Even Mac gets it, and Mac's, like, completely square!" Daniela added to the conversation. Joey still didn't get it, while Mari's ex-husband was guffawing in a corner.

Mari began to sing, "Ya gotta get it, mm-hmm, ya gotta get it--"

"And ya gotta get it good!" joined in Daniela, Pandora, and a few others who knew the McCartney song to which Mari referred. (It's on McCartney 2, released in 1980, in case you want to look it up.)

That broke up the giggle-fest, and Marianna went back to the conversation she'd been having previously. "I'm delaying the contest-- again-- anyway. Nobody's entered yet. 'Sides me and Alan, you guys, Dani, and Suki."

"I would," said Doreen, "but I'm not exactly the image of grace right now."

"But we still love you," said UPChuck. She punched him. "What is it with you girls and punching me, anyway?" he protested.

"Women, not girls!" said Dream, and punched him.

"I'm going to talk to Alan," he said, walking toward the door and pouting.

"Gott sei Dank!" Mari said under her breath. "I love them dearly, but men do tend to get on one's nerves occasionally."

"Naw, really?" Doreen said. She set another dried glass under the bar, and Mari picked it up immediately.

"Anyone for a glass of Zinfandel?" she asked. Doreen shook her head-- not allowed. Dream stuck out her tongue.

"I can't even stand Kool-Aid, forget alcohol," she explained.

"That's what you get for living with Mister 'alcohol might lower my sperm count so I'm only drinking water from now on'," Mari grinned.

"So maybe we want to have a kid or two before he hits forty. Is that so wrong?"

"He's, what, thirty-three? And alcohol is not that damaging. Imagine all the martinis Mac had being a secret agent, or try to track Alan's lager intake in one night. Three kids between the two of them so far, right?"

Dream rolled her eyes. "It's silly to argue about this. Hey, has anyone seen Ellie and Zachariah?"

Mari thought about it for a moment. "I think they were in the night they came back, but I don't think I've seen them since. Odd."

"Bet I know what they're up to," Doreen said.

"Ellie wouldn't, not before marriage," Marianna stated firmly.

"Not that!" Doreen laughed. "They claimed movie rights for the plane crash, and they're working on the screenplay!"

"You've gotta be kidding," she heard from behind her.