"He certainly did," Phil replied, "but I've got him on the other line at the moment. One sec." The telepath hopped over to his second line. "Sam - Priest needs to speak with you."
"Go ahead and transfer him," Dawson replied. "You can make the deposit sometime later today. I've already put the deed transfer through the system."
"I appreciate that," Phil said.
"I hope you find everything to your liking," Sam said. "You can take a boat over this afternoon if you want. And don't worry - you're not cheating me out of anything by paying asking price. Money isn't much of an object to me."
"Thanks again," Phil repeated. "Later."
He switched back over to line 1. "Priest?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm just gonna transfer you to him."
"Even better," the soldier from the future replied. "Thanks a lot."
"Anytime," Phil replied as he transferred the call and hung up.
"So you went ahead with it?" Leslie Kline asked as she walked in.
"I figure I can bounce it off the others later," Phil answered as he sat down on the bed in the hotel room. "I just wanna be able to have my own place for once."
"That doesn't seem like reason enough to buy a whole island sight unseen," Leslie mused as she set her handbag atop the dresser by the television.
"I've seen the surveys," Phil countered. "I know what the place looks like. On top of that, I don't have any reason not to trust Sam. And quite frankly, for the price he wanted, it's a winning proposition even if the structures in place turn out to be condemned." Phil chuckled. "If I don't like it, I can always sell it to some resort mogul and turn a hell of a profit."
"But what about the team?" Leslie asked as she sat on the bed across from him. "I thought Sam wanted to sell the island to the team for them to use."
"They can still use it," Phil pointed out. "All someone has to do is ask me, and I'd be happy to give them some space on it. I'd enjoy the company, honestly. But I personally just want a place of my own, and not have to be a drag on somebody else."
Phil got up and walked over to the window looking out over the harbor. "I like it here, Leslie. I love La Perdita, don't get me wrong. But things are different now. I don't feel that I can live on La Perdita anymore without causing - directly or indirectly - bad things to happen to the people around me. Trouble follows me - you know that. Between the trouble that follows me and the trouble that follows this team, I'm amazed this island hasn't been leveled by now. By moving to that little island, I'm hoping I can put some distance between what the team does - and what I do - and all those civilians. And I want the team - what's left of it, anyway - to feel welcome there, and maybe even use the place as a staging point for missions and what have you."
"I just don't want to leave all of them," Leslie insisted. "I'd like to be able to spend time with Brianna - and I'm sure you'd like to be able to see Grissom and Priest once in a while."
Phil sat back down on the bed and put a hand to Leslie's face. "We won't be leaving them, honey. It's a ten minute boat ride between La Perdita and the island. By helicopter, it's maybe two or three minutes. We can travel back and forth as much as we like." He kissed her cheek. "I just want the island to be a safe place for us, away from all this. If others decide to join us, I want it to be a safe place for them too."
"That's not going to be easy," Leslie said. "And making it livable might not be cheap."
"From what I've heard," Phil said, "the old mansion on the little island is in decent shape. I can put a generator there for now, until I get a decent power system going, and fix the plumbing, and it could be pretty comfortable until we decide to build a house of our own."
Leslie smiled. "I'd like that."
"I would too," Phil agreed just as his phone beeped.
"Voicemail," Phil muttered as he got up to check the number. "I better go see Ed. He doesn't usually leave me messages unless it's important."
"I probably need to get moving too," Leslie sighed as she got to her feet. "I'll see what Bri's up to."
"Have a good day, sweetheart," Phil said as he kissed her. "We'll talk about this island thing later." He shook his head. "As soon as I try to explain it to the others."
