I try to put myself in Lee’s head (not bed) on occasion and this time around this is what I found.

In the night

Sharon H.

~<<>>~

The full moon shone silvery white though the bedroom window, leaving a square of light across the big bed. Chip often teased me about why I wanted the big king sized bed. Chip had a dirty mind. Truth was I was a light sleeper and tended to toss and turn in my sleep. Anything smaller and I was liable to end up on the floor.

Wendy never complained about my taste in furniture. Right now she lay against my right hand side, her long hair silver touched in the moonlight. She had come home three days ago, took one look at my bandaged shoulder but never said a word. I was expecting a fabulous speech, but she only kissed me and said, “at least you're safe”. For not the first time I wondered what I had done to deserve her.

Safe. I was safe. For the moment. Until the next attempt. I knew there would be another. I was Seaview's skipper and somewhere along the line I had become a target. My knowledge of Seaview, my ONI contacts, my friendship with the admiral, all those things made me a target. This last time Chip had gotten caught up in a plot to kidnap me.* My friend just shrugged it off, claiming it was part of the job. Came with the territory. He could have been killed. Hell, I thought the admiral had been killed. That sense of loss and desolation had been overwhelming.

I looked over that the woman beside me. Wendy was sleeping peacefully, her breathing slow and regular. Chip had asked me once what my intentions were concerning his sister**. I didn't know then, and I still don't know. Wendy was like a piece of me, somehow. She never demanded from me, she accepted my time on shore and was willing to accept that Seaview was as much a part of me as my soul. Over the years I had dated a lot of women. It was always the same. They couldn't handle me being away for so long, weeks, maybe months at a time. It was different with Wendy, somehow.

Chip had learned that lesson the hard way. While his marriage to Vanessa had lasted a while, she hadn't been ready to accept his position as Seaview' Exec. Chip would sooner cut off his right arm than give up Seaview. So the marriage ended and Chip was slowly trying to heal.

I had learned my own lesson. Those around me were a target. If Wendy stayed with me, she would be, too. Could I protect her? Could I deal with the loss if something happened to her?

How would I deal with losing Chip? There had been times in the past when I had thought I had last him. Each time something happened to him or the Admiral, a piece of me died. I wasn't ready to admit what I might be feeling for Wendy, but I couldn't loose her, not now.

End

srh

*World on Fire

**Mud II