Betrayed
By JSRobertson
Janet Crane boarded Seaview
a few minutes after being picked up by FS1. She had terrible headache, her wrist was
broken and there were some bad bruises on her face. They were bringing the Admiral aboard. He was beaten up pretty badly. She could tell by the look on Jamie’s face
that he didn’t like what he saw. Lee was
beside himself. The admiral was like a
father to him and to her also. The whole
control room was staring at her with disgusted looks on their faces. Chip, Kowalski and Patterson wouldn’t say one
word to her on the trip back.
“Janet report to our cabin
immediately and do not leave it,” Lee said angrily. She just stared at him. “Janet...Janet now,”
he ordered.
She stumbled up the spiral
staircase and entered their cabin sitting down on the bunk. What had she done? She thought he would be upset that she was
hurt. He didn’t care at all, he was
actually very angry at her.
******
One day earlier
Seaview was leaving on a restocking mission to several underwater
research laboratories in the
The admiral was taking Admiral
Starke the final technical data for the new missile detection system. Seaview had tested the new system and
found it had some flaws. The admiral,
after talking it over with the Navy, had made some final adjustments. Now it
was ready to be installed on a few additional submarines for additional testing
before installing it on the whole fleet.
******
They would leave NIMR by
The admiral had some of the data
on paper in his briefcase, but there was also a flash drive that held all of
the data.
Janet was in her office when
the admiral came in and asked her to wear the NIMR blazer he was carrying to
the meeting with Admiral Starke. She
didn’t mind since it was a little cool outside and it looked classy. The admiral helped her into the blazer and
they went to the front entrance to wait for the car.
The NIMR car was already
waiting..
“Where’s Tommy?” Nelson asked
the driver.
“He has the flu, sir. I’m Phil.”
“Very well, let’s go.”
They were driving down the road
to take them to the freeway when the engine started to overheat. Phil pulled the car over to the side of the road.
Right near the edge of a ravine.
“This car should have been
checked out before we left!” Nelson bellowed.
“I’m sorry sir. I don’t know
what happened. I’ll call for a
replacement. We’re not too far from the Institute.”
“I’ll call for the replacement myself,” Nelson said frowning, using
his cell phone. “Nelson Institute, come
in.”
“Admiral, where are you?”
Trish answered quickly. “Tommy’s been
waiting for you. You didn’t answer and your office was locked. ”
“What do you mean? Janet and I were picked up about a half hour
ago…”
Before the Admiral could
finish, the phone was knocked out of his hand and there was a gun pointed at
his head. Another was another pointed at Janet’s through the window, by someone
from a car that only just pulled up, presumably to render assistance.
Oh no, Janet thought, I’ve seen
them before...where...in
“Admiral Nelson, Mrs. Crane,”
Benny waved his gun through the window, “get out of the car. Don’t try anything either. We’d have no
problem shooting either of you.”
“Who are you?” the admiral
asked confused.
“Why don’t you tell him, Mrs.
Crane,” Tommy answered snidely.
“Tommy and
Benny. They held Lee prisoner in
“Ah, yes. He wanted the missile
detection system information,” the admiral remembered.
“Let’s go. Get into the other car,” Benny said, “but
first...”
Tommy took Janet’s purse, the
admiral’s wallet and phone and put them in the NIMR car. They let the admiral keep his briefcase as
their prisoners were pushed into the car and secured with a magnetic locking
system.
Tommy and Benny pushed the
NIMR car down the ravine and watched it tumble to the bottom, smiling with
satisfaction as it was destroyed.
Tommy clicked his device and got
into the back seat with the admiral and Janet, locking them in again. He injected both of them with pressure darts.
It was a long acting sedative. They wouldn’t wake up before they got to their
destination. Benny and Phil got in front seat.
They would drop Phil off down the road to a waiting car. He got in the car and drove away smiling. He had
been paid handsomely for doing this job.
******
“Nelson Institute to Admiral
Nelson, come in please. Admiral, please answer,” Trish was still
yelling frantically.
After getting no answer, she immediately
called security to see if they had a location on the car since all institute
cars had tracking devices on them. Security located the signal and sent a team to
check it out. They found the car at the
bottom of the ravine totally destroyed.
“Security to Nelson Institute,
come in.”
Trish answered immediately.
“Did you find it? Are the admiral and Janet okay?”
“We found the car at the
bottom of a ravine. The admiral and
Janet were not there. The admiral’s
wallet and phone along with Janet’s purse were the only items we found. We
looked in Janet’s purse and her cell phone was not there. Hopefully, she has it with her. It looks like they may have been kidnapped. But
it doesn’t look like they were hurt. We
didn’t see any blood. We are going to have the car recovered and
brought back to the institute. We will give
you the items we found in the car when we get back. You better let Captain Crane know what has
happened. Security out.”
Trish dreaded making the call
but knew it had to be done.
“Nelson Institute to Seaview,”
Trish radioed without delay.
“Seaview aye,”
“
“Skipper could you please
come to the radio shack?”
Lee hurried over with Chip
and picked up the mic.
“Trish?”
“Lee, the admiral and Janet
were kidnapped on the way to
“Ohmyg...could they tell if
they were hurt?”
“Well, there wasn’t any blood
that security could see, in what was left of the car or anywhere around it, or
on the shoulder of the ravine.”
“Have communications keep
checking for any signals from Janet’s phone. Let’s hope she can activate the
tracking device. Monitor all the radio frequencies too.”
“Yes sir. Please let me know
if you hear anything too.”
“I will. Seaview out,”
he replaced the mic, then threw it down savagely. “Damn,
damn, damn!” Lee said running his hand through his hair.
“I’ll keep checking all
frequencies too, Skipper,”
“What do we do now?” Chip asked with a frown.
“We wait to see who contacts
us first, what else? Nelson, Janet or the kidnappers,” Lee sighed and walked
towards the plotting
table. He picked up a pencil and tapped
it nervously.
******
Steven Arnold had tried to
open the admiral’s briefcase but found it locked. He’d managed to pry it open,
glad it hadn’t had any triggering devices on it. He rifled through it and found
the data on paper and the flash drive. He
put the flash drive in the computer but as he expected it was password
protected. He used a computer program to try and find out possible computer
passwords but after trying out a few of them he knew he needed to get the
password from the Admiral or Janet, whoever would talk first.
Tommy called
“Give me the password to the
flash drive and I will let you and Mrs. Crane go.”
“You must know I will give
you nothing,” Nelson spat.
‘Now Admiral, please don’t
make me hurt you.”
“I don’t care what you do to me;
you must be dense if you think I’ll ever give up the password.”
“Enough for
now. Maybe that will change his
mind,”
The admiral could tell he had
a couple of broken ribs and his back hurt like hell. They hadn’t handcuffed him back to the pipe,
so he could lie down. He had a hard time
getting comfortable. He was worried
about Janet and where she was. He didn’t
want her to get hurt, but he would never give up the password to the flash drive.
******
Janet was in a very
small room with a cot as well. The last thing she remembered was being shoved
into the car and pricked in the arm. Her
head was killing her. She was freezing so she was glad the admiral
had made her wear the blazer. She didn’t
know where the admiral was and she was worried about him.
“I see you are finally
awake,” Benny said to her as he guarded the door. “Mr. Arnold wants to talk to you.”
“I’m not talking to anyone
until you tell me where the Admiral is!”
Benny left to get
“Mrs. Crane,”
“Where’s the admiral? I want
to see him! Now! What have you done with him?”
“You, my dear, Janet, are in no position to make demands!” he said
slapping her across the face. “That was payback for your punching me in the jaw
when we were in
She didn’t answer as she
rubbed her cheek, afraid he would follow through on the promise he made in
“Give me the password to the
flash drive. Now!”
“I wouldn’t tell you if I
knew. And I don’t know. The admiral didn’t tell me. Please just tell me he’s okay,” she begged.
“Why should I do that?
Besides, unless he gives me what I want, you won’t see him alive again.”
******
“Pipe it in here please,” Lee
asked still at the plotting table. He
just rolled his eyes at Chip not wanting to deal with him right now.
“Crane, what the hell is
going on,” Starke yelled. “Nelson was
supposed to be here an hour ago and nobody at that Institute of his will tell
me anything.”
“Admiral, I was just going to
call you. Admiral Nelson and Janet have been kidnapped on the way to your
meeting. Their car was stopped on the
road and pushed over a ravine. We haven’t received any signal or communication
from them. I have the Institute as well
as Seaview monitoring all frequencies.
We’re hoping Janet can activate her cell’s tracking signal.”
“Damn. Keep in touch,” Starke stated angrily.
“Yes, s....” But before Lee
could finish Starke had already cut off.
******
Arnold and Tommy went back to
the Admiral’s cell to try again to get the password from the admiral.
“How are you doing, Admiral? Ready to give me the password?”
“Never, no matter what you do
to me.”
“If we kill him we’ll never
get what we want. He’s just as stubborn as
Crane,”
******
He checked her phone to see what messages were
on it looking for any numbers he could use for a password. He found a couple of them where she was
repeating a phone number to someone who called her. Since she didn’t know the password, the only
person who knew it was the admiral. So
if the number she gave on the video was incorrect no one would know it was the
wrong one. He figured Crane would have
his cell phone on him hoping she would call him. He found the tracking device on the phone and
disabled it. If he couldn’t get the
information from her, he could at the very least make their lives
miserable. He knew Crane would no longer be able trust his wife with any
information and hoped it would destroy their marriage. What sweet revenge.
.
******
“Janet, what is the password
to the flash drive?”
“I already told you I don’t
know it.”
“What’s on the flash drive?”
he continued.
“I don’t know. I know nothing about what was in the
admiral’s briefcase either. Where is he,
please let me see him?”
“Just answer my questions,”
“I don’t know anything about
the missile detection system,” she insisted.
Satisfied with the answers he
received. He told Benny to take her back
to the room.
On the way back, Janet asked
if she could use the restroom. He showed
her where it was and waited outside the door.
When she came out of the restroom, she kicked Benny in the groin. As he was falling down, he grabbed her by the
arm and dragged her down with him. She
fell striking her head on the cement floor and landed on her wrist. She blacked
out for a moment. Her head started to hurt, she was a little dizzy and she
thought she broke her wrist. Benny was
really pissed and in a lot of pain. Catching
his breath, he pulled her up by the arm and slapped her across the face.
He was dragging her back into
the room when
“You b.....,” he started to
say as
“What the hell is going on
here,”
“She kicked me and we fell,”
Benny said holding his groin.
“Mrs. Crane, you better
behave yourself or you will be sorry,”
He didn’t notice her wrist
was broken.
Benny shoved her in the room
and slammed the door while swearing at her.
******
“I wish I were there to see
his face when he sees this video,”
Lee was in the control room
when his cell phone rang. He saw there
was a video coming in from Janet’s phone, but no tracking signal. He gave
“
“Aye, sir.”
“Greetings Commander,”
“Damn,” Lee muttered under
his breath realizing that they had no way of locating his wife and the admiral.
The video continued with Janet
telling
“Turn if off,” Lee yelled
rubbing his forehead.
“Lee, was that the guy from
“Yes,” he said dejected.
“Sparks,” Lee said as he ran
over to the radio shack. “Anyway to
track where that video came from?”
“I don’t know if I can, Skipper,”
he replied. “I’ll do what I can. Any idea where to start?”
“They haven’t been missing
that long. Try up and down the coast. Also call the institute and see if they can
track where the call came from.”
“Aye, sir.”
Lee, Chip and the rest of the
control room were in shock. How could
she betray the admiral and her country?
Now what was he going to do. His
wife was a traitor.
Lee went to the observation
nose and stared out the windows. Chip
could see his best friend was devastated.
He loved Janet almost as much as he loved Seaview. He knew Lee couldn’t and wouldn’t ever trust
her again. Lee would never accept a
traitor. In fact he despised them and it
didn’t matter that this traitor was his wife.
******
Janet was back in the
room. Her wrist was throbbing and she
now had a massive headache. She still didn’t know where the admiral was and if
he was alright. She was so tired, she
lay down on the cot and fell asleep.
******
The admiral came to and was
in severe pain. He knew a few of his
ribs were broken, his eye was swollen shut and his back was killing him. He wondered where Janet was and if she had
triggered the locator. All Janet had to
do was lie down and it would send out a signal.
He blacked out again.
******
“Skipper, I have a signal. But not from Mrs. Crane’s phone. Some other type of device.”
Lee and Chip ran over to the
radio shack.
“Where’s it coming from?” Lee
asked quickly.
“Looks like somewhere near
“Chip, get
FS-1 ready to launch.”
“Are you going to fly her?”
Chip asked softly.
“No, I think you’d better,”
Lee sighed deeply.
FS-1 launched in ten
minutes. Flying with Chip were Kowalski
and Patterson. It would take them about two hours to reach
Just as FS-1 was leaving Seaview,
“Any news, Crane?” asked
Admiral Starke.
“We just got a signal and
sending FS-1 to find them. We also got a
video from the kidnappers and we could see the admiral is severely injured.” He didn’t say anything to him about what
Janet had said.
“Anything I can do to help
from this end?”
“The signal came from
“I’ll call the commander
right now and arrange it. Let me know
when Morton lands.”
“Yes, sir. Seaview out.”
******
“What do you want?” she asked
afraid of what he might do to her.
“Just checking to make sure
you are okay. Your wrist looks
broken. Let me look at it.”
“Don’t touch me, leave me alone,”
she said very frighten hoping he wouldn’t hurt her. “Please let me see the
admiral,” she pleaded.
“What’s with you and the
admiral? Oh, all right, but you aren’t
going like what you see. He’s as
stubborn as your husband.”
He took her to Nelson. At
first, she thought he was dead but when she touched his arm, he stirred and
looked at her. She could see he was in
terrible pain.
“Can’t you help him?” she
asked
“I don’t care if he hurts. I
don’t care if he lives or dies,”
“Could we at least have some water? We haven’t had anything to drink since we got
here.”
“Tommy, bring them some
water. She won’t do us any good if she’s
dead.”
“How are you?” the admiral
asked looking at Janet’s wrist.
“I’m okay, but sorry sir you
look like hell, what can I do to help you?”
“Nothing right now,” he said
grimacing. “Did you lie down?”
“Yes, and I must have dozed
off for a while,” she said thinking that was an odd question.
“Good, good,” the admiral
managed to smile and passed out.
******
While they were eating dinner,
******
Chip landed at the naval base
in
Seaview’s crew and the men from the naval base tracked the
signal to a factory near the edge of
The men from the naval base
would take Arnold, Benny and Tommy back to the base while the crew of Seaview
would head back to FS-1 with the admiral and Janet.
Before they left the factory,
Kowalski pressed into service as a medic, checked out the admiral and said his
injuries were very serious and they needed to get back to Seaview right
away. He thought Janet had a broken
wrist and wrapped it up.
“Morton to Seaview.”
“Seaview aye,” Lee
answered quickly as he was standing in the radio shack.
“We have them. We will be taking off in a half an hour.”
“Are they okay?” he asked as
he ran his hand through his hair.
“The admiral isn’t looking good. Janet’s alright.”
“Did you get
“Yes, they are taking him
along with the other two back to the naval base. The commander there is going to contact Admiral
Johnson and arrange transportation to
“Very well. Seaview out.”
Janet couldn’t understand why
Lee didn’t seem more concerned about her and didn’t even ask to talk to her.
They put the admiral in the
ambulance. Janet wanted to ride with him but Kowalski wouldn’t let her. She rode in the jeep with Patterson. She was surprised at the way the men from Seaview
were treating her. They boarded FS-1 and
were headed back to Seaview. They had put the admiral in the bunk but
Kowalski couldn’t give him anything for the pain because he didn’t know if he
had a concussion. He still wouldn’t let
Janet near him. She was so confused.
******
Present
FS-1 docked with Seaview
two hours later. Frank and John had a
stretcher waiting in the observation nose to bring the admiral to sick
bay. Jamie had everything ready to
insert an IV and check him out. He came
to as Jamie was examining him and was in severe pain. He had no concussion, but had a badly bruised
kidney, two broken ribs that luckily did not puncture his lung and his eye was
swollen shut. He was going to have one
nice black eye. Lee and Chip were in
******
Janet was in their cabin as
ordered wondering why Lee hadn’t come to see her. She knew he was upset about the admiral but
she thought he would make sure she was okay before going to sick bay. He was so angry with her. Also, she doesn’t know why she couldn’t go to
sick bay with the Admiral. She was so
worried about him. She could tell there was something definitely wrong as the he
whole control room just stared at her when she came aboard. She didn’t know what she did wrong.
Lee came to their cabin two
hours later. But before she could ask
him how the admiral was he started yelling at her.
“I want your resignation immediately,”
he demanded. “How could you?”
“What are you talking about?”
she asked him very confused.
“You gave
“Lee, I don’t know what
you’re talking about?” she told him with tears running down her cheeks. “I told him nothing. Nothing!”
“Don’t lie to me! We all saw the video with you telling
“What video?”
“You know damn well what
video!” he grabbed her broken wrist and she passed out.
******
Janet woke up in
“How did I get here?”
“Lee carried you here after
you passed out.”
“Jamie, what’s going on? The
admiral, is he going to be okay?” she asked, shaking.
“Calm down. He will be fine. He has a couple of broken ribs, a bruised
kidney and some bruises. He’s sleeping
right now.”
“Where’s Lee, why is he so
mad at me?”
“I’d better let him explain
that to you. Right now you need to have
your broken wrist put in a cast. You
also have a mild concussion and some bad bruises on your face. They will just
have to heal but you’ll be spending some time in sickbay.”
“No, she won’t,” Lee hissed
as he entered sickbay. “She can rest in the brig.”
“The brig?”
“That’s the best I can do for
traitors.”
“Why are you calling me
that?” Janet cried, “what’s going on?”
“Captain, in spite of
everything, she’s your wife and she needs to be here,” Jamie stated
angrily.
“After you treat her, she’ll
be confined to our cabin, then,” he conceded.
“I don’t want her anywhere near the admiral. And that is an order,” Lee spat.
“Lee what have I done? Please don’t treat me this way,” she cried.
“As if you don’t know! I’ll
get someone to escort you to the cabin.”
“I’ll do it,” Doc said.
“Why won’t you take me, Lee?” she asked stunned at
his coldness. “And why can’t I stay here with the Admiral?”
“I can’t bear to be near
you,” he turned and walked out without saying anything else. He wasn’t sure he could ever look at
or be near her again.
After putting her wrist in a
cast, Jamie walked her to their cabin very slowly. He could have overridden Lee’s order but he
was so adamant that Janet not be near the admiral, Jamie was afraid Lee would put her in the brig instead of letting
her go to their cabin. They had to stop
a few times because she was so dizzy.
Jamie told her if she needed anything to call him. He was pissed at Lee for the way he treated
her. He had seen the video but didn’t
believe what he saw.
He was going to have Cookie
send up a plate of food since she hadn’t eaten.
When they got to their cabin,
Jamie saw to it that Janet was settled in the bunk. He said if she needed him to just call sick
bay and he would come right away. Before
he left, Cookie dropped off a plate of food. Jamie put it on the desk and told
her to eat. After he left she tried to
sort out what had happened. Lee wanted her
resignation. Why? She laid down and cried.
*******
She must of slept for a
couple of hours. She woke up to find
Jamie sitting in the chair at Lee’s desk.
He noticed she hadn’t eaten any of the food.
“How long have you been
sitting there? Does Lee know you’re
here?” she asked sleepily.
“I’ve been here about an hour
and I really don’t care if the Captain knows I’m here. You should have been in
“Not hungry...my headache is
still pretty bad...my wrist is throbbing.
Can you give me something?”
“Sorry, I can’t give you
anything because of the concussion.”
“How is the admiral? Is he awake?”
“Yes, he is awake and asking
for you. He wants you to come to sick
bay and bring your blazer.”
“I can’t leave. You heard what Lee said. And he wants me to
bring my blazer? Did he say why?” she asked
him with a puzzled look.
“I told the admiral what Lee
said about putting you in the brig and confining you to your cabin. But he
doesn’t give a damn what Lee ordered. All I know is that I’m going to bring you
and the blazer to sick bay.”
She grabbed the blazer. She and Jamie went slowly to sick bay. As they were walking she got pretty dizzy and
would have fallen over if Jamie wasn’t holding on to her. He would never have let her leave their cabin
if she’d told him how nauseated she was.
******
It was still very tense in
the control room. Lee was pacing in the
observation nose not knowing what to do about Janet. He had demanded her resignation from NIMR
immediately. He would never trust her
again with any information about NIMR or Seaview, but what was he going
to do about their marriage? How could he
love her now? A traitor?
Chip went to his friend in
the observation nose and put his hand on his shoulder. Lee told Chip that he’d demanded Janet’s
resignation and wanted to put her in the brig for being a traitor. Chip was shocked that he would even think of
doing that to her. He knew Lee had some
difficult decisions to make right now and felt very sorry for him and Janet but
there was nothing he could do for the couple.
******
“Skipper?”
“What is it
“Could you please come with
me to the radio shack? There was
something bothering me about the video you received. I studied it a little more closely and found
something you should be aware of. Something we should all be aware of.”
Lee followed
“Skipper, if you look
closely, real close, you can see that the words we heard don’t match what Janet
...er...Mrs. Crane was saying. This video was expertly dubbed. ”
“She didn’t betray the
admiral or her country,” Lee said, relieved. “Good job, Sparks.”
“No problem, Skipper.”
The whole control room seemed
to sigh with relief too. They didn’t
like it when their Skipper was unhappy and either did Seaview.
******
Lee ran up the spiral
staircase to apologize to Janet but she wasn’t in their cabin.
Where the hell is she? Can’t she ever follow orders?
“Captain Crane report to Sick
bay,” Jamie said over the intercom.
“I’ll be right there Jamie,”
Lee answered quickly from the cabin mic.
Lee came running into sick
bay thinking something had happened to the Admiral. Chip was following right behind him as he was
going off duty and wanted to check to see how the he was doing.
“Lee, how could you?” Nelson
shouted. “Janet told me you wanted her resignation!
That you said she divulged classified information. She couldn’t have. I never gave her the password and she didn’t
even know what was in my briefcase. And
you were going to put her in the brig?”
“Everything...everything
pointed to her being a traitor. The video..” he said rubbing his hand on his
forehead. “We were sent a video by
So that’s why everyone was
treating me with the cold shoulder. Janet muttered to herself.
“I was looking for Janet to
apologize when Doc called.”
“Lee, can we please talk privately about this in
our cabin?” she asked quietly. “But first, Admiral why did you need my blazer?”
Janet asked handing it to him.
Taking the blazer the admiral
opened up the lining in the pocket and pulled out a flash drive.
“I put this in the pocket
before we left. On the flash drive is a
locating device along with all the data for the missile detection system. The other drive and items in my briefcase
were the old ones and would not have worked properly but well enough for them
to figure out how the system functioned.
When you laid down it activated a tracking device linked directly to Seaview. That was how we were found. I’ve been working on it for awhile and hoped
to test it out. But this isn’t quite the
test I was hoping for. Did you find my
briefcase and flash drive?”
“Yes, sir. We brought both items back with us,” Chip
replied. “I don’t think they were able
to transmit anything from the flash drive.
“I was surprised you asked me
to wear the blazer as you had never done that before. I’m sure glad I was cold and tired.” Janet
responded wearily.
The admiral started to yawn
and Jamie said we had to leave so he could rest. He told Janet she needed to rest and he would
see her in the morning too.
******
Chip, Lee and Janet walked to
their cabins in silence until they got to their cabin door.
“Good night, Chip,” Janet
said. “Thank you for rescuing me.”
“No problem, I’m really sorry
about the way we all treated you. But
what we saw...”
She interrupted him before he
could finish, “I know that now. Please don’t worry about it.”
******
Janet and Lee went into their
cabin. It’s been a long day and night
for both of them. She just wanted to go
to bed.
“Sweetheart, I...I don’t know what to say. I should have never believed that video on
face value. I guess I was just shocked
by what I believed you were saying. I should
have known you would never divulge classified information. Please forgive me,” he asked taking her hand
in his. “I should have known. I should have known...”
“Lee, you don’t know how badly
you hurt me,” she pulled away. “I thought you had more trust in me. You made a rash decision without even considering
what I was going through. I would never betray you, the admiral or my
country no matter what Arnold or anyone else did to me. The brig!” she said with tears in her
eyes. “I’m not sure I can forgive you.
Well, at least not any time soon.”
He took her in his arms and
gave her a kiss and hug. “I’ll understand
if you never want to see me again. Take
as much time as you need, sweetheart. I’m
truly sorry for ever doubting you.”
“I’m going to bed. Alone, if you don’t mind. I’m
exhausted,” she said yawning. Her head
was still hurting and her wrist was throbbing.
She climbed into their bunk
and was asleep in seconds. Lee knelt beside the bunk, and kissed her on the
forehead, as tears rolled down his face.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so
sorry....”
******
Janet awoke with a headache
but her wrist didn’t hurt as much. Getting ready for the morning proved to be quite
a challenge. She had to put a plastic
bag over her cast so that made showering a bit difficult and getting dressed
was just as hard. She never realized she
needed two hands to do almost everything, including putting on make up.
Finally she was ready and went
to the wardroom for breakfast. She heard
one of the officers say something about some scheduled drills. Jamie was there so she asked him if the
admiral was awake. He said he was, and
that Lee and Chip had been in earlier to see him. He hadn’t eaten breakfast and Jamie was going
to have Cookie make him a tray. She asked
him if she could have with breakfast him as she needed to talk to him. Before
she could ask him, Cookie volunteered to bring a breakfast tray to sick bay for
them.
When she got to sick bay the
admiral looked a little better than he did yesterday. He was still very sore, and had a black eye
but was looking forward to breakfast. He
mentioned to her that Lee was going to run a few drills today. She hated it when they did drills. It meant more
paperwork for her and she didn’t need any more paperwork today.
The admiral and Janet ate their
breakfast and talked about what had happened. He assured her that he’d never had any doubts about her
loyalty. But considering the video that
he’d had
“Even so, I’m still angry at the
way he treated me. I told him I needed
some time to forgive him. You know how
he hates to wait for anything.”
“Honey, he’s worried you won’t forgive him at all. Ever. He’s
scared.”
“Of course I will, I just
don’t know when. I thought he trusted me more. I’ll speak with him later,” she gave the
admiral a hug before leaving glad he was doing better.
She left sick bay and was on
her way to the control room she heard the klaxon sound and knew she had better
get there pretty quick as the drills were starting. When she got there Chip
just rolled his eyes. Lucky for him Lee didn’t see him. Oh boy, it’s wasn’t going to be a good day for
any of them.
******
Lee made the crew do drills
all morning and into the afternoon. As
usual the crew performed flawlessly. No one could take time for lunch as Chip
and Lee were analyzing each drill and what they could do differently to make
them better. Janet needed to take notes on what drills were done and any
improvements Lee thought might be required.
She really felt sorry for Chip as Lee was relentless. She’d never seen him like that before and
everyone was at the end of their rope. The
whole boat was aware their skipper was not in a good mood. She would definitely
have to talk to him before the crew made him walk the plank. Hopefully he would be better after dinner.
******
Lee was a bear. No matter
what Chip or she, or the crew did was right. She didn’t know how many times
they had to change the notes on the drills to get them to Lee’s
perfection. By the time they were finished, she was starving,
tired, her head and wrist hurt. She went
to sick bay and Jamie finally gave her some acetaminophen. The admiral was already tormenting him about
when he could get out of there. Jamie
was standing his ground, not for at least another day and then he would have to
rest in his cabin for a week.
Lee, Chip, Jamie and Janet were
going to have dinner with the admiral.
Cookie made the admiral’s favorite dinner of roasted chicken, mashed
potatoes with gravy, and green beans. He
also made some brownies for Lee hoping it would help improve his mood. While they were waiting for dinner, Lee
mentioned something about more drills tomorrow and she actually heard Chip
groan.
“Do you have a problem, Mr.
Morton?” Lee asked a little too harshly.
“No sir, none at all,” Chip
replied quickly.
“Lee, why don’t you give the
crew a break,” the admiral told him. “I
heard the drills went very smoothly.”
“There’s always room for improvement.”
They all thanked their lucky
stars that dinner arrived just then. They
ate pretty much in silence. No one
wanted to set Lee off again. Even the
brownies didn’t help.
Nelson rather pointedly
looked at Janet, pleading with his eyes, that there was only one thing that
would help Lee’s mood.
“Lee, could we please go to
our cabin. I need to talk to you
privately. Please excuse us, admiral.”
“Now?” Lee snapped. “I still have some things I need to discuss
with the admiral.”
“Yes, now,” she snapped back
grabbing his hand and headed for the door.
“It’s okay Lee, we will talk
tomorrow morning,” the admiral nodded knowing what was going to take place.
“Yes, sir.”
******
Lee and Janet walked back to
their cabin in silence. When they got to
their cabin, he opened the door and she went in first. He followed her in and shut the door. Pushing him up against the door she gave him
rather long passionate kiss.
“First,” she said after
breaking away, “I realize you had no choice when watching that video but to
believe what you saw. But you need to know that I would never betray you
or anyone else.”
“I know that now. Do you
forgive me for doubting you and not trusting you?” he asked softly. “And threatening to throw you in the brig.”
“I don’t want to. I
shouldn’t. Not yet. But..okay, yes, I guess I forgive you.”
Lee sighed in sheer relief.
“Secondly, you can never
take out what happens in our marriage on Chip or your crew. You’ve been a real bastard today. And there
will be no drills tomorrow.”
“I guess I was pretty bad
today,” he grinned.
“That’s putting it
lightly. Now, go walk around your boat
and let the crew see you are back to ‘normal’ Captain”, she told him smiling
back.
“No, I’m going to skip it
tonight as I definitely have something much better to do,” he said as he locked
the door and gave her a rather long passionate kiss and hug.
******
As Seaview continued her restocking
missions, the admiral had arranged another meeting with Admiral Starke two
weeks later to bring him the flash drive with the missile detection
system. He asked Janet to go with him
again. Since Jamie wouldn’t let him fly
FS-1, he had Lee fly them to the meeting. They got to
******
Janet’s wrist would be in a
cast for another two weeks. Luckily they
were on Seaview or Lee would’ve had to do all the chores for her. He hated doing chores but after what happened
he would’ve gladly done them or anything else she wanted.
The End.