I have several (Greek Epic-length) stories going right now, but I'm in Boston and this popped into my head. Apologies for the details I got wrong.
I don't own anything, of course. I just love reviews.
.
.
Sometimes, Sam Carter was four instead of forty. She balanced her way dead center along the neat double row of red bricks as she walked through the shipyard. There was a kid in the group behind them doing exactly the same thing. Kids all over the city had been doing it, actually, and at least she had been yielding right of way to toddlers. "Are you having fun?" Jack asked her, trying to sound wry despite the fact that he thought she was adorable.
Her grin lit up her entire face. "I am. Sorry, I know you're tired of me."
"Not hardly." He was tired, though; their vacation had been fun but not particularly restful. His suggestion of a week in an overwater hut in Bora Bora had been met with an incredulous stare and the insistence that she'd had enough nothingness at his cabin to last a lifetime. It had been a nice trip; the White Mountains were beautiful, Burlington had some pretty great hard cider – well, Vermont in general was delicious – and some of the old coastal batteries were pretty interesting. The Freedom Trail had its high and low points, but Carter was loving it. And to Jack, that made it worthwhile.
He'd been heading straight when she took a right off the trail and ran flat into him. "Oh, sorry," she said.
"Aren't we going to the museum?" It was a hundred feet ahead and clearly marked.
"I kinda thought you were sick of history museums," she answered with a coy smile, well aware that he was only tagging along because she wanted him to. "I thought we'd go straight to the ships."
"Sounds good to me." He fell into step beside her again, but glanced at the signs on the building ahead and asked, "Security? Why the hell do we have to go through security?"
"Because it's Navy," she told him with a shrug.
"I've been on a helluva lotta ship museums without getting strip searched, Carter."
Her laugh was musical as they stepped into line behind another group. "I'm sure it's just an x-ray. You'll need your ID."
"Sure." Jack dug out his wallet, glancing down to look for his driver's license. The group in front of them moved into the security building, and Jack looked up again… to find himself in front of a Navy Seaman in uniform. The woman beside him flashed her ID and exchanged salutes.
Jack just stared at her.
"ID, please, sir," the young man requested.
"Carter," Jack complained.
"What?" she asked.
Frowning at her, he showed the Seaman his military ID instead and watched the young man snap into a salute. "Sir."
Jack unhappily returned the gesture, let the man stamp his hand, and headed into security. "What the hell is the Navy doing here?" he groused as he emptied his pockets into a bin.
"It's a Navy shipyard," she answered with a shrug.
"It's not an active Navy yard. This place was decommissioned in the seventies, wasn't it?" He only knew about the huge Coast Guard installation across the river.
"I have no idea. But the Constitution is a Navy ship."
He walked through the x-ray machine and turned to stare at her from beyond it. "Actually Navy?"
"It's the oldest commissioned warship afloat," one of the security workers told him.
Jack frowned at him, too, and shoved his wallet back in his jeans.
~/~
Jack trudged up the gangplank, ID in his left hand in preparation to salute. He hadn't intended to adhere to protocol on vacation; hell, he hated protocol any time – just as much as the Navy adored it. Worse, he was almost certain to get it wrong. But he thought he had the basics – salute the flag, salute the officer on deck, request permission to come aboard.
As though she could hear his thoughts (she always could), Carter said beside him, "You're not in uniform. You don't have to salute. You can just come to attention."
Like that made it better.
Some kind of ceremony seemed to be going on already. The Petty Officer near the top of the gangplank reached for the bell behind him and began to ring it. Ding ding. Ding ding. Ding ding. And then, to his Jack's utter horror, the young man called, "Major General, United States Air Force, arriving."
Damn it all to Hell. He looked around the deck to find three men and a woman in period Naval costume standing at attention. And every single tourist was staring at him. "As you were," he barked. The time for "you don't have to salute" was clearly over, so he saluted the flag flying aft, then saluted the Petty Officer. "Requesting permission to come aboard."
"Come aboard, sir," the young man answered, and Jack stepped onto the ship. Behind him, Carter repeated the salute process but – lucky her – managed to skip the rest of the nonsense since her sacrificial ranking officer was already on board.
Or so Jack thought. As the Petty Officer headed for the bell again, she asked, "For me?"
"Four bells, ma'am."
She grinned at Jack as the sound echoed around them. Annoyed, hoping it was finally over, he frowned at her and muttered, "So glad every single person on this boat knows our ranks now."
His ire only made her smile spread wider. "God, Jack, it's so hard to be you."
He turned his back on her and ducked down a ladder.
~/~
It was a cool ship. Despite all the pomp and circumstance nonsense, it was a beautiful piece of history in a beautiful harbor. He was with a beautiful woman, too, and it seemed ridiculous to complain. Carter stood at the bow, watching the sailboats in the harbor, and he slipped an arm around her as he stepped up beside her.
"We are on Navy property," she reminded him. As though he could forget.
"I am on my honeymoon," he answered, so the "no PDA on base" rule was flat out. It wasn't his fault she'd brought him here.
"Behave." But they weren't in uniform, so they weren't breaking any regs and she knew it. Tipping her head, she pressed her lips briefly to his jaw. "I hope I didn't ruin your vacation. I thought it was kind of neat."
He kissed her cheek. "You and I have always had different ideas about that. But nothing's ruined. Not as long as you're here with me."
Her smile made it all worth it.
And then he had a thought. "Are they gonna ring that damned bell when I leave, too?"
~/~
Jack flipped through the channels on the hotel room television, trying to find the baseball game. Carter had offered to do it before she went for a shower, but that was because she thought he didn't know how to use the fancy remote, so he'd sent her away. And then he'd battled with the fancy remote for most of the last ten minutes. But he had it figured out now, and he knew there was a game on. Somewhere. He just couldn't find it. Irked, he stuffed another pillow behind his back and kept looking.
The door to the bathroom opened and Carter stepped around the corner to the foot of the bed. And he dropped the remote. She wore a deep blue teddy – navy blue, one might say – that slit up to her breasts and showed off her incredibly body. Parking one knee at the edge of the mattress on either side of his feet, she gave him a sultry grin. "Requesting permission to come aboard, sir."
"Oh, come aboard."
He reached for her as she crawled up over him and thought maybe a little ceremony wasn't so bad after all.