A/N: This takes place after they're rescued in Rescue from Gilligan's Island, but they don't get stranded again until later, but not the same ending. Pinger and MAG are featured, but it's mainly MAG since I'm a huge fan :) and, this is obviously AU. Oh! And I can't remember if Mary Ann's fiancée's last name was mentioned so I'm making one up myself XD. Reviews are appreciated, but no flames!

Chapter One

1978

It was late at night when the ringing of the telephone interrupted his dream. At first, all he did was mumble a little bit, not exactly happy that he had woken up in the middle of the night. His left hand slowly made its way to the phone. He grabbed it first before he picked it up and put it to his ear. A yawn escaped his mouth when he opened it.

"Hello?" he asked, holding back a second yawn.

"Gilligan?" the voice was quiet.

"Mary Ann?" Gilligan furrowed his eyebrows. It was too late to be sure exactly who it was. After all, it could've been Ginger or Mrs. Howell. He was so tired he couldn't think straight.

"Yeah...it's...it's me..." Mary Ann's voice was low.

"Why're you speaking so quietly?" Gilligan furrowed his eyebrows and went to scratch the top of his head and jumped when he could feel his sailor's hat on top of his head. He took it off and set it on the nightstand.

"Well...I don't want to wake Herbert."

"Your husband?" at this point, he was coming around just a bit better and understood more, but Gilligan was still pretty much half asleep.

"Yeah..."

"Look, Mary Ann, it's great to hear from you, but..." Gilligan yawned again. "It's..." he looked at the clock. "Four thirty in the morning."

"I know...well, it's not the same time here but it's still late." Gilligan just yawned in response. "If I get on a plane from Kansas to Hawaii could you pick me up tomorrow?"

"What time?"

"My flight leaves at six thirty. I should be there around one thirty or one forty five."

"I think I can..." Gilligan nodded, his words trailing off and being stopped by another yawn. "Why're you leaving? I thought you were happy."

"I'm not." He could practically hear her sobbing on the other side of the line, and his heart almost broke into a million pieces. He hated to hear Mary Ann cry. He cared for her. A lot. He wasn't sure exactly when it started, but he knew he had feelings for that Kansas farm girl that he never had for any other girl. Well, woman. Mary Ann was a woman now, not a girl. The island had made her grow up quicker than anyone had anticipated. He had grown up too, just a bit, but not any more than anyone else.

"Well, yeah...I can pick you up. What's going on? He's not hitting you or anything is he?" Gilligan's voice rose a few more notches. If that bastard even laid a finger on her pretty head, he'd kill him personally.

"No! No, no, no. Nothing like that. Herbert's a good man. A very good man. It's just not fair to either of us to stay in a relationship that neither of us is committed to. He loves Cindy, and I love someone else."

"Who?"

"N-nobody, Gilligan, nobody. I don't think you know him." Mary Ann spoke quickly.

"Oh." The first mate did his best to hide his disappointment but he still felt like Mary Ann had heard it.

"You're picking me up at the airport, right?"

"Yeah."

"Good. I'll see you later, I guess."

"Yeah."

"Bye."

"Bye."

The line on the other end went dead. Gilligan sighed. He knew he had screwed up with not telling Mary Ann sooner on how he felt about her. He screwed up a lot. Too much it seemed. Now he was more than likely going to lose the love of his life.

Things just never seemed to go his way sometimes.

...

It was a little after two when her plane landed.

Gilligan wore his usual island outfit-the red shirt with jeans-but he held his sailor's hat in his hands. He messed with it a little bit, the cloth soft now after fifteen years of wear and tear. There were various spots where it had to be mended, and those were a bit rougher than the original cloth because of that.

He lifted his head again and looked around. Slowly, he saw a familiar figure walk up to him.

Mary Ann Summers-or, rather, Mary Ann Rucker-was making her way through the crowd. Her hair was a bit shorter than it was the day that they were rescued and was up in a ponytail. She wore a pink shirt and blue jeans. On her feet was a pretty old pair of sandals, probably an old pair from the sixties that looked to have seen better days. She had been crying, it was easy to tell with the mascara lines running down her face, but she acted like everything was hunky dory. Her eyes were a little puffy and red from the crying, but she could just lie and say that her allergies were affecting her. That usually worked anyway.

When she spotted his thin figure not too far from her, she sped up. It was nearing the end of the year, and she hadn't seen Gilligan-or anyone else for that matter-for four months. An instant grin broke out on her face, and in the pit of her stomach, a small fire seemed to have been lit. When she reached him, she put her suitcase down and they embraced. Neither said a word. She took in his scent and suddenly the airport seemed to melt away. They were on the island once again, it seemed. Her heart did almost a million flip flops as she held him close.

Gilligan was surprised, almost, at the length of the embrace. Mary Ann never held him for this long-or vice versa. She smelled of cocoa butter lotion and some kind of French perfume that he could recognize from his sister when they had their little family reunion after his return to civilization. When they pulled away, both of them felt as if it was too soon. Cautiously, knowing sometimes little things would make Gilligan flee like a mouse from the brush, she took his hand in her own.

"So." Mary Ann spoke first when she noticed that he didn't run off. "How've you been?"

"Pretty good. The Skipper got another boat, we're naming it the Minnow II."

"That's neat." She smiled. "I'm glad. I can't wait to see it."

"Well, you could see it now! It's at the docks. We just need to finish painting it up a little and we should be good to go."

"Not right now, Gilligan. I'm a little tired. Maybe after I take a nap. I didn't sleep at all last night."

"Why not?"

"I was worrying about what to say to Herbert. When I told him when he woke up, he understood. We're still friends."

"That's good."

"He sent for the divorce papers this morning. I gave him your address so he could mail them to me. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine." Gilligan nodded. Before they left, they swapped numbers and addresses so that they could stay in touch, but the call from earlier had been the first in months. Even if it was at four thirty in the morning, Gilligan had enjoyed every moment of it. He noticed how tired Mary Ann was and shuffled his feet a little. "Wanna head to the car?"

"That would be great." Mary Ann smiled. She bent down to pick her suitcase up but Gilligan had already beat her to it. He stood slowly, his eyes widening as the weight of the suitcase began to drag him down. "Maybe you should let me carry that." Mary Ann held in her laughter.

"No...Nope...Mary Ann, I've got it." Gilligan reassured, but his voice was strained. "Geez, what's in here? Rocks?"

"No." Mary Ann laughed quietly and took the suitcase from him, carrying it with ease. "Thanks for offering to carry this, Gilligan, but I think it was too heavy for you."

"Yeah, well..."

"C'mon, let's go."

...

When they got to the house, Gilligan showed Mary Ann to the guest bedroom where she immediately got on the bed and fell asleep.

In the living room, Gilligan lounged on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. Thousands of thoughts ran through his head. They were mainly about Mary Ann and how he felt about her.

Is it too much to wonder if she feels the same way for me as I feel for her? I mean, it shouldn't be too farfetched, should it? Well...it shouldn't be.

Maybe I can get her to make one of her coconut crème pies! No. No, she's tired. Don't bug her about the pies. Maybe later.

Gilligan sighed quietly to himself, shutting his eyes. Skipper knew where he was and knew what he was doing. He knew how much he liked Mary Ann-it was just easy to see-and he let him have the day off. Tomorrow, he'd had to go help with the Minnow II again, though, and leaving Mary Ann alone wasn't something that Gilligan did not want to do.

At all.

He slid his old sailor hat over his eyes and relaxed. Almost automatically, his snoring filled the room.

...

When five o'clock rolled around, Mary Ann stirred. She looked around a little, not exactly sure on where she was for a moment, until the memories flooded back to her. Almost immediately, she began crying again. She hated leaving Herbert like this. But she knew it was for the best. After all, he didn't love her and she didn't love him. Not anymore.

In a strange way, she felt as if she was at home. The tears subsided, and she relaxed. A clatter of pots and pans was heard in the kitchen and a loud "Shh!" was heard. Mary Ann giggled to herself. In ways, Gilligan hadn't changed a bit. It was cute. No, adorable. To some it would get on their nerves but with her...she loved it. Every moment of it.

If only she could really tell him how she felt without scaring him off.