Fluid Mechanics
By R. L. Keller
Chip Morton glanced up as the door to BZ’s,
He had originally offered to
accompany Lee on the quick visit – Lee had left that morning about 1030 hours
and it was now only 1820 hours. But Lee
had just smiled, thanked Chip for the expression of friendship, and told him
not to waste his only free day in four weeks.
Seaview had returned the previous day from a charting mission, and
tomorrow both men would have to begin preparations for the next cruise, scheduled
to leave in five days. They tried not to
schedule such short turn-around times, but it had proven necessary. Their boss, and head of the Nelson Institute
of Marine Research, Admiral (Ret.) Harriman Nelson, had been asked to assist in
the recovery of a recently discovered WW2 submarine approximately 200 nautical
miles south-southeast of
The COB of his first command,
the fast attack submarine Sea Horse, had passed away at the base hospital
following a battle with cancer. His two
daughters both lived in the area with their families, and Master Chief Oliver
Gardner was to be buried there next to his late wife. When Lee had shown the telegram to Chip and
Nelson he’d expressed sorrow that a man who had served such a long and storied
career in the Navy should have been felled so soon after retirement. His friends knew how deeply Lee could feel
such loss, and both offered to accompany him to the services. Lee had just smiled, and declined both
offers. Neither had known the Master
Chief personally, and would just be going to bolster Lee. He’d given them a smile and assured them that
it wasn’t necessary. He’d sent a grin
Chip’s way when BZ’s was mentioned. It
was the favorite watering hole for tackling any and all personal matters, from
a traffic ticket to a marriage proposal.
Chip still took a carefully
hidden deep breath. It would have been
all too easy for Lee to have taken his heavy heart straight home and mourn in
private. Apparently Lee had come
directly from the airport as he hadn’t even bothered to change out of his dress
uniform. As he caught Chip’s welcome and
headed in the blond’s direction at the booth that was their normal ‘spot’ when
available because of its partial seclusion, tucked back in the corner, he
started to shed his jacket. He slid into
the seat, dropping the jacket across the end, and reached to loosen his tie.
“Rough?” Chip asked solicitously,
pushing the pitcher of beer he’d ordered and the extra mug in Lee’s direction.
Lee ignored the question for
the moment it took him to eye the large pitcher. “Sure that I’d come?”
Chip shrugged. “Or I’d be taking a taxi home,” he said with
another grin.
Lee half-chuckled as he
poured a mug full of the beckoning brew.
“That would make doing requisitions interesting in the morning,” he
observed dryly.
Chip’s grin spread. “That’s what I have a secretary for,” he
assured his CO.
“Oh, she’d do them, for
sure,” Lee agreed. “But the haranguing
you’d get the whole time she did would be worse than the hangover.”
“Humm – point taken,” Chip
nodded.
Lee chuckled, took a long
draught from his mug, and let out a sigh that seemed to come all the way from
his toenails as he slouched back in the seat.
“Actually,” he said softly, “it was pretty okay. Oh, it was hard to say goodbye.
“Big funeral?”
Lee nodded. “He’d made a lot of friends over the
years.” Lee sighed again and took
another swallow of the beer. “I’m
really, really, glad that we got home in time for me to attend.”
“That was good luck,” Chip
agreed. “A lot of familiar faces for
you, too, I’m sure.”
Lee nodded. “Capt. Roche was there, for one.” Chip knew the name, although he’d never met
the man. Roche had been Lee’s XO on
board the Sea Horse. “He was one of the
pallbearers. Afterward he drove me back
to the airport, and he and I stopped for a drink and to reminisce.”
“Ah, started without me,”
Chip teased, as he caught the fact that Lee’s voice was getting lower and more
sad.
Lee sent him a faux glare and
nodded toward the pitcher. “That wasn’t
nearly full when I got here.”
Chip laughed. “Bet you’re hungry,” he changed the
subject. Lee just shrugged, but Chip
knew his friend far too well. Food was
never a major item on Lee’s daily agenda.
But at least he didn’t argue when Chip signaled one of the floating
waitresses and ordered a large double-meat pepperoni, sausage and green pepper
pizza. “So,” Chip then continued, “what
utter chaos did you cause your COB on the Sea Horse that you and Capt. Roche
kicked around?”
“Me?” Lee blustered, but he
still grinned.
“Yeah, you,” Chip
insisted. But he didn’t push when the
smile stayed on Lee’s face as he drained his mug and refilled it.
After taking another sip, Lee
started talking again. Chip happily
noted more fondness and less sadness in his voice. “Oliver was a lot like Curley Jones, really. Don’t think that I thought much about it at
the time, but it went a long way toward making my transition to Seaview
easier.” Chip nodded. Seaview’s first COB had been special – in a
lot of ways. Lee had never talked much
about his time aboard the Sea Horse – before he’d been pulled to command
Seaview after Capt. Phillips’ untimely death, and what had led to Lee’s taking
over permanent captaincy of the vessel.
There was a time or two when Lee had referred to those eight months in
general terms, saying that it had been a major learning curve in his career.
When Lee remained silent for
longer than Chip thought healthy, he reached out a foot and tapped one of
Lee’s. “Give,” he ordered, and relaxed a
bit when Lee’s smile spread.
“I took command of the Sea
Horse in
“What did you do?” Chip
growled, knowing his long-time friend only too well. He knew that he’d struck pay dirt when Lee’s
grin turned decidedly sheepish.
Through slightly lowered
eyes, Lee continued. “There was only an
anchor watch on duty – the Sea Horse wasn’t scheduled to leave port for over a
week. Thought I’d just go aboard and
walk through her.”
Chip rolled his eyes. “Yeah, like you’d be allowed, not having even
checked in yet.”
“Well…” Lee admitted. “But sometimes, if you act like you know what
you’re doing, the seamen just assume that you do.” His expression got even more sheepish as Chip
snorted.
There was a short pause as
the pizza was delivered. Both men
grabbed a slice and took a bite before Chip once more nudged Lee’s foot with
one of his own. “Didn’t quite go as planned?”
he asked.
Lee shook his head and swallowed
the bite. “The ensign on duty took one
look at my oak leaves and didn’t question what I was doing.” He sent Chip a small grin. “Not so the Master Chief.”
“A little protective of his
boat, was he?”
“Mmm,” Lee mumbled around
another bite of pizza, and paused long enough to swallow it. “I’d barely taken two steps and he popped out
of the boarding hatch. Have no idea how
he knew.” He and Chip both nodded and
grinned. COB’s – good ones, anyway – you
tended to not try to figure out how they knew anything. It was decidedly safer!
“First, he demanded to see my
papers. I was actually just going to
admit defeat and head up to Admin. But
he wouldn’t budge so I dug them out. He
kept glaring at my insignia, then at the papers, then at my face, then back to
the oak leaves…” Lee sighed. “It only made matters worse when I tried to
explain that I’d been assigned to take command of the sub.”
Chip’s grin grew. Not only had Lee entered
“He just crossed his arms
over his chest, and got that sort of patronizing look on his face. Look,
son.” Lee did his best to imitate
what he remembered of
At that Chip did actually
giggle. “And you the hotshot ONI
agent.” While Chip kept the grin on his
face there was an ever so tiny sharpness to his voice. He never for an instant let Lee forget what
he thought of Lee’s continued activities for the Navy’s Intelligence agency.
A brief nod acknowledged
Lee’s understanding of Chip’s remark.
“Yeah, well…” He let the
explanation hang as Chip chuckled again.
“Anyway, as the SP’s arrived, he finally let me take my wallet out –
never did ask him what he thought I was reaching for.”
“Your daddy’s service
revolver?” Chip asked with a grin, and took another bite of pizza.
Lee just shrugged, and took
another bite himself before continuing.
“To make a long story a little shorter, the SP’s called Admin, and
someone there tracked down that I was, actually, supposed to be there. Well,” he admitted at Chip’s glare, “on base,
anyway. One of the SP’s was about to
escort me to Admin when Capt. – he was Lt. Cdr. Roche at the time – showed
up. We’d met at a training seminar
several months before. The Master Chief
still looked a little skeptical when Jim told him I was really Sea Horse’s new
skipper. Just sort of shook his head,
rolled his eyes, and walked back inside the sub muttering to himself.”
Chip laughed, and refilled
Lee’s almost empty beer mug. “Bet he wondered
what the Navy was coming to, letting a baby like you have command of a fast
attack sub.” Lee nodded. “And I know you far too well to think that’s
all you did to the poor man,” Chip goaded him.
“Once we got that sorted out,
it was a piece of cake,” Lee tried to assure Chip. He should have known better.
“Yeah, riiiiiiiight,” Chip
drawled. “Give!” he ordered again. As Lee sent him one of his better command
stares Chip just chuckled, and Lee surrendered.
“Officially took command the
following day. Like I said, we weren’t
scheduled to leave for a bit yet so I had time to settle in. Acquainted myself with all the crew as they
checked back in from leave, or reported in if they were new to the boat.”
Chip nodded. He was very familiar with Lee’s leadership
style. While he outwardly remained laid
back, almost casual, he was constantly evaluating people’s strengths and
weaknesses. Lee didn’t like surprises
when it came to crew performance. He was
willing to cut a man some slack if it was just a matter of needing further
training or experience at a position, and made sure that the crewman received
whatever he needed to succeed. But if
there was a problem brewing simply from poor work ethics, he wanted to know
about it before it created trouble.
“Along about the fourth day,
Jim caught me in the Wardroom…”
“You mean, someone didn’t
actually have to drag you kicking and screaming there to eat something?” Chip
cut him off.
Lee tried the glare again,
but surrendered even faster, and sent Chip a particularly sheepish grin. “Having coffee,” he admitted. Chip just shook his head. “Jim grabbed a cup and sat down opposite me,”
Lee continued. “I was running down a
list of minor maintenance repairs, checking off which were done and which still
needed doing…”
“Which was his job,” Chip
again cut him off. This time with a
grin.
“Yeah, well…” Lee sent Chip the ‘small boy caught with his
hand in the cookie jar’ look that Chip was also all too familiar with. “I had things under control and was just
helping out,” Lee defended himself – softly, because he knew there was no way
Chip was going to believe him anyway; Chip knew him way too well for
that. “Whatever,” Lee half-grumbled,
which only caused Chip’s grin to expand.
“Jim and I sat for a bit going over the list. As we were about finished, he said that he’d
just had a complaint from the Master Chief.
About me,” Lee admitted.
“What had you done this
time?” Chip asked, using the ‘put-upon’ inflection in his voice that he
was all too good at.
“Nothing,” Lee answered
indignantly. “At least,” he fudged, “I
didn’t think so.”
“You never do,” Chip quipped,
the grin back on his face.
It was Lee’s turn to lightly
kick his XO. “All I’d done was help a
couple of the guys repair a circuit box,” he muttered. “I didn’t take over the job like I didn’t
trust them to do it right – just stood around, kibitzing and handing them
tools. One of the men was married. His daughter had celebrated her third
birthday while he was home. He was
teasing the other guy, was he ever going to marry his girlfriend. Like I said, just kibitzing.”
Chip rolled his eyes, and
emptied the pitcher of beer between his and Lee’s mugs before picking up
another slice of pizza. “And?” he
asked. Lee raised an eyebrow. “Don’t give me that,” Chip muttered. “I know you far too well. What else?”
Lee looked down at the slice
of pizza he was working on. “Well…” he
started. Chip didn’t say anything, just
sent him a grin. “Did sort of work with
one of the maintenance men the night before, to unstuck a valve in one of the
hydraulics lines,” he admitted.
“What else?”
“Nothing,” Lee muttered. Chip just grunted. Lee concentrated on his pizza, not saying
anything. When he looked up again Chip
was still glaring at him. “Give me a
break here,” Lee complained. “I was on a
new boat, taking command for the first time – I mean, on my own. I really needed to have things in order in my
own head. It was just easier to stay
aboard at night than stay in the BOQ.”
Chip burst out laughing. “Oh, no,” he finally got out. “Don’t tell me. The COB discovered you crawling through the
ventilation shafts at 0-dark-thirty.” He
used the slang term that translated into the middle of the night.
“I wasn’t in the ventilation
shaft,” Lee growled. Chip just continued
to look at him, until Lee dropped his eyes and mumbled, “I was in one of the
ballast tanks.”
Chip laughed so hard that he
had to put down the beer mug he’d just picked up. “Please,” he said, holding up the other hand,
“I don’t even want to hear what you were doing in there,” he got out
between the bubbles of laughter.
“Just checking a couple of
things,” Lee muttered anyway, which only caused Chip to laugh harder. There was also a chuckle heard from the booth
at Chip’s back. They couldn’t see who
was sitting there because the dividers were so tall.
Chip finally got himself
somewhat back under control, and nodded toward the divider before lowering his
voice as he continued. “So, I gather
that your new COB didn’t take kindly to some skinny, underage, baby-faced *officer* wandering unsupervised around his
boat, and complained to the XO?”
Lee
nodded, and finished swallowing a bite of pizza. “Jim didn’t say much then. While we got along fine, I was still his
CO.” Chip nodded. “When we got to talking about it this
afternoon…”
“Yeah,
yeah,” Chip quickly filled the silence as a shadow of sadness once more crossed
his friend’s face. He was relieved when
the shadow was replaced by another sheepish grin.
“Jim
had already been working with the Master Chief for about six months – they knew
each other pretty well by then.”
Chip
nodded. On a surface vessel, where there
were anywhere from a few hundred to five thousand crewmembers on board,
sometimes it took awhile to familiarize yourself with the people around
you. Not so on a submarine, where the
smaller numbers and tight quarters got you up close and personal in a
hurry. “Pretty much tell his XO what he
thought of you, did he?” Chip teased with a grin, and waved his hand at the
waitress for another pitcher of beer.
Ignoring
the crack, Lee sent his own XO a glare.
“You keep that up and we’ll both need a cab home,” he growled.
Chip
shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”
Lee
nodded acceptance of that statement, drained his glass, and had it almost immediately
refilled as the waitress brought a new pitcher and took away the old one, with
a grin to both men. They grinned back
but it was all friendly. She knew them
well from their patronage at the bar, and they knew that she was very happily
married, with two young sons.
“So?” Chip brought the conversation back to
business.
“So,
what?” Lee tried to feign innocence of what Chip wanted to hear.
“Don’t
play stupid,” Chip growled, but was secretly pleased when Lee laughed out loud.
“Okay,
okay,” Lee surrendered. “Yeah, Jim said
that he got an earful from the Master Chief.
Said he tried to explain that the Navy wasn’t stupid enough to give
command of a fast attack sub to someone they thought wasn’t up to the
challenge.” Lee gave Chip a sheepish
grin. “I thought at the time, I wasn’t
so sure that I had as much confidence in my own skills as he seemed to.”
Chip
chuckled gently and shook his head. Lee
had always had a problem acknowledging his own abilities. He never thought of himself as anyone special,
despite all the signs around him – how others thought of his skills. “So, Roche got the Master Chief calmed down?”
“Ah…” Lee gave him the through-the-lashes look that
always told his friends he was uncomfortable about discussing whatever was
going on at the time.
“Yes?”
Chip refused to let him off the hook.
“Not
quite that fast,” Lee admitted, and stuffed another bite of pizza in his mouth.
“Huh
uh,” Chip growled again. Lee raised an
eyebrow as he chewed. “You don’t get off
the hook that easy, junior,” Chip threatened, but his expression relaxed as
Lee’s once more turned sheepish.
Lee
took his time chewing, and washing the food down with a long draught of beer,
all the time giving Chip little sideways looks.
Chip didn’t push. So far Lee was letting
himself be drawn out to talk about both today’s happenings and those that
happened years ago – something that he so rarely did no matter how cathartic to
his psyche such conversations could be to the very private man. “Took a little longer for the Master Chief to
calm down,” Lee finally admitted softly.
“And
why was that?” Chip asked in kind, trying to keep the conversation on a
relaxed, friendly basis.
“You
know my habit of walking through the boat in the evenings.”
Chip
frowned. “Or any time you can’t
sleep.” He sent Lee a firm look.
“Then,
too,” Lee agreed softly. “Never
considered it a problem. I get keyed up;
I need to walk it off.” Chip nodded. “I mean, I was 31 years old, placed in
command of the Sea Horse, and given orders to…”
He hesitated and looked at Chip through lowered eyes.
“Classified,”
Chip translated.
“Big
time,” Lee agreed. “But critical.” Chip nodded.
“And…” Lee hesitated again.
“And
you let it dwell on your mind and couldn’t rest.” Lee nodded at Chip’s understanding. “How many nights in a row?” Lee looked down at his slice of pizza,
neither taking a bite nor reaching for his beer mug, until Chip kicked him
lightly. Chip sent him a supportive grin
as Lee finally looked up.
“A
few too many,” Lee finally admitted.
“Oops.” Chip tried to put a teasing quality in his
voice. While he could harass his old
friend without mercy on occasion, right now didn’t seem like the correct
tactic.
“We’d
been at sea almost two weeks. I was
settling into the command. Running drills,
or having XO Roche do them and the two of us evaluating the results. Getting into a routine. Well,” he hedged, “trying to.” Chip nodded again and refilled Lee’s
half-empty mug. Lee frowned at him but
it didn’t last. He gave Chip a subtle
nod, took a swallow, and continued. “The
crew didn’t seem bothered by my walk-throughs.
I thought that I was getting along with almost everyone. Oh,” he admitted, “there were a couple men I
wasn’t too thrilled with – and who were probably not overly thrilled with me.”
“You
take what you get in the Navy,” Chip agreed.
“Not like now when we can easily weed out the slackers and
troublemakers.”
Lee
nodded. “But I’d put those few on ‘A’
watch, where they were easier to keep an eye on. They wouldn’t have had an issue with me
wandering around during the sub’s night.”
On a submarine, ‘night’ was a relative term designated only by the clock
since it was always dark.
“But
it ticked off the COB?” Lee nodded as he
took another bite of pizza. Chip was
pleased that Lee was actually eating as much as he was. “I seem to remember Curley Jones having
something of the same problem.” He
paused, and then added. “And Sharkey.”
“COB
thing,” Lee mumbled around the mouthful of food. Chip sent him a grin. “XO Roche just ‘happened’ to run into me one
night…”
Chip’s
grin spread. “XO thing,” he told his
friend. Lee mumbled something slightly
rude, and sent Chip a soft kick. But he
still grinned. “And?” Chip continued to
prod gently.
“Started
to explain to Roche – or tried to, anyway.”
Lee sent Chip another sheepish look, and Chip nodded. “Roche said that he’d pretty much already
told
“But
what new ones did the Master Chief then come up with?” Lee sent him a hard look, but Chip just
grinned. “Know you too well to think
that was the end of it.” He laughed
openly at the disgruntlement on Lee’s face, and reached to refill Lee’s mug.
“This
is good pizza,” Lee nonetheless tried to sidetrack his old friend.
“You’re
changing the subject,” Chip grumbled.
Lee sent him an innocent look, which only made Chip’s go that much
harder. Lee took a deep breath, and
another bite of pizza, before continuing.
“Among
the new crew who had come aboard at the same time as me was a new cook.”
“Oh,
no,” Chip groaned dramatically.
“His
food was really good,” Lee quickly defended the man.
“How
would you know? You never eat.”
Lee
thought about kicking Chip again, but suddenly didn’t feel like expending the
energy. Finally realizing that he’d had
too much to drink, normally he would have clammed up. But…
He was in a familiar place, with an old friend, old memories, and no
reason not to totally relax. “Too keyed
up over the command and the mission,” he admitted softly. “I did eat, just…” He sent Chip one of his patented
through-the-lashes looks.
“Juice
for breakfast, half a sandwich for lunch, four bites of whatever for dinner,
and forty-nine cups of coffee in between,” Chip translated.
“Something
like that,” Lee admitted.
Chip
just shook his head and reached for the last slice of pizza. He’d caught the slight lack of focus that was
starting to appear in Lee’s eyes. He was
a bit surprised that Lee was still talking.
Normally any little loss of control would cause Lee to totally shut
down. But he, too, recognized the
relative safety that Lee should be feeling in these familiar surroundings. That’s one reason Chip had suggested meeting
here. He sat back and sent Lee an easy
grin, encouraging his long-time friend to continue.
“I
was finally getting on better with Master Chief Gardner,” Lee said softy. “Oh, he was still a little stiff and formal
around me, but…” He hesitated and sent
Chip a small grin.
“You
do have a way of getting people over to your way of thinking,” Chip
admitted. He was never too sure how Lee
managed it. Lee never seemed to make any
special attempt, just tried to be friendly with everyone. But Chip had seen it happen far too many
times over the years to discount Lee’s abilities in that department.
“Yeah,
well…” Lee gave Chip another little
grin. “One day Jim and I had a meeting
to evaluate some performance drills he’d run.
Normally we’d meet in my cabin, but that day we met in the
Wardroom. I wanted to include the
lieutenants in charge of those two departments, to compliment them on how well
they had their men trained even though both had several new ones.”
Chip
nodded and smiled. That was so *Lee*. “And you wanted to make a few little
suggestions, in a non-threatening atmosphere.”
It
was Lee’s turn to smile. “Once we
dismissed them, Jim and I stayed to cover a couple other little things.” He sent Chip a sheepish grin. “Seems Master Chief Gardner had had
another ‘conversation’ with him.”
Chip
couldn’t help himself – he just laughed.
He decided that he really needed to meet now Capt. James Roche and have
a little talk, XO to former XO, and let Roche know that in no way had he been
unique in having to deal with a certain dark-haired commander!
Lee
held up a hand – not really unsteadily, but definitely not his normally quick
movement. “Nothing like what you’re
thinking,” he growled.
“You
have no idea what I’m thinking,” Chip told him firmly. Lee sent him a raised eyebrow but, when Chip
didn’t say anything further, continued.
“Seems
the Master Chief had been taking a little informal survey about the new cook.”
“One
of his first duties when a new cook comes aboard. If the food isn’t good, the crew gets
cranky. And if the crew is cranky…” He didn’t finish the thought as Lee nodded.
“Been
there,” Lee agreed.
“Me,
too. Just something else you can’t
totally control in the regular Navy.”
Lee
nodded. “Jim said that he didn’t know
where the COB was headed with the conversation because, as far as he could see,
everything was okay.”
Chip
momentarily looked skyward – or, in this case, ceilingward. “Here it comes,” he muttered, mostly to
himself but still loud enough that Lee could hear.
Lee
frowned briefly, but he also nodded. “
Chip’s
response was momentarily sidetracked by a snorted cough coming from the booth
behind him, but only for a second. “And
what lies did you tell your XO that time?” he asked with a brief glare.
Lee
sent him one right back, before they both grinned. “Didn’t lie,” Lee told him. His grin broadened. “Rule number one – never lie to your XO. They have nasty methods of retaliation.”
Chip’s
look hardened. “I’ll remind you of that
line the next time you say ‘I’m fine’, when I know perfectly well that you’re
not.” But he ended up chuckling.
“Like
I said,” Lee sniped back, “nasty retaliation,” before he, too, smiled. Chip just shook his head. “Anyway, I told Jim that, while I never ate
much…”
“Gotta
be the understatement of the century,” Chip muttered softly.
Lee
frowned but continued. “That what I did
eat was terrific.” Lee looked down, then
only partially back up, so that he could just barely see Chip’s face. “Dawned on me that, while I’d been evaluating
and interacting with the rest of the crew, I’d been totally ignoring the
galley.”
Chip
snorted. “Dawned on you, or Roche
pointed it out?”
Lee’s
grin went more sheepish. “Little of
both,” he admitted.
Chip
nodded. “Sounds about right. While I have to admit that you’re one of the
best at looking at the total picture, you always did need someone to point out
the little details.” Lee sent him a dark
look, but Chip just laughed it off and emptied the second pitcher of beer
between his and Lee’s mugs – mostly into Lee’s.
Lee’s
glare went briefly to the mugs before returning to Chip’s face. “You did that on purpose,” he muttered. “Made me drink most of the beer.”
“Nobody
makes you do anything,” Chip corrected, but he sent Lee a grin. “Other than that, guilty as charged. You seemed to need it.” His look to his old friend was open and
honest.
Lee
continued to glare, but only for a brief moment before he closed his eyes and
sighed deeply. “Did,” he admitted, once
more looking at Chip. “Thanks.”
Chip
grinned. “Just doing what any good XO
does – look after my CO.” He almost
couldn’t get the old, familiar line out without a chuckle.
Lee
groaned over-dramatically at what had become almost a pun between the two. But he also nodded, acknowledging the
friendship that existed between the two to have allowed it to become the old,
familiar line that it was.
“You
about ready to call it a night, junior?”
Lee nodded. They both took a last
swallow of beer, left their half-full mugs next to the empty pizza plate, and
started to slide out of the booth, Lee grabbing his jacket in the process. But he looked up sharply when Chip caught his
foot on the table brace and half stumbled as he stood.
“Keys,”
Lee demanded, holding out his hand.
Chip
sent him a glare. “And I’m going to let
you drive, after what you just drank?
When pigs fly,” he growled.
“I
think I can solve the problem,” a new voice was heard, and Admiral Nelson slid
off the bench at Chip’s back.
“Sir?”
both younger men practically stuttered to get out.
Nelson
just smiled, held out his hand, and waited until Chip meekly dropped his keys
into it. He took a step and did the same
to Lee, who gave his boss a quick grin as he complied with the unstated order. “Thank you,” Nelson told them with a
broadening smile.
“If
I may ask, sir…” Lee started, but didn’t finish.
“What
am I doing here?” Both younger men
nodded. “I’m not allowed to kick back,
relax, and have a beer now and then?”
His voice was filled with gentle humor.
Chip
and Lee sent each other a raised eyebrow, shrugged, and quietly followed as
Nelson headed for the door. Sometimes it
was better not to totally know what motivated their boss – to do
anything!