Well, I'm still on a Deadliest Catch kick. What can I say? The show is extremely addictive. It has been from episode one. Apologies if this story starts off a little slow. It is a continuation from Life Ain't Always Beautiful. Oh and by the way, thanks goes out to anyone who has taken interest in the story and read it. Appreciated. That makes me want to write more.
Annie Sinclair looked up at the sign that read Elbow Room. She had picked up a paper at the local grocery store and quickly scoured the ads for job openings, quickly learning that there weren't many in a town like Dutch Harbor Alaska. But she had come across the one opening for a waiter/waitress, bartender. She did have experience at both. So taking a deep breath and letting it out, she turned the doorknob and opened the door to the place. When she stepped in she immediately liked the place. It didn't have the typical bar feel. She quickly realized that it both a restaurant and a bar. There were pictures of everything from crab boats to scenic pictures of the Alaskan mountains. Then a movement caught her eye. She glanced down at the corner over by the bar counter and smiled at a small pair of eyes staring at her. The small child couldn't be more than three years old had the curliest head of hair Annie had ever seen. Just when Annie was going to speak to the child she heard a voice and the child giggled and shot across the room.
"Cole? Come here!"
Annie watched a tall man come through the door and scooped up the child and throw him over his shoulder. Annie smiled and soon realized that the man that scooped up the child had to be the child's father. Exactly the same head of hair, light brown, almost auburn.
"Oh, hey there. You must be Aurora's interview for the afternoon."
"I am yes. Annie Sinclair."
"Ok. I'll go get Aurora. My name is Crosby by the way. This little monster is Cole."
"Nice to meet you both." Annie couldn't help but smile as the two disappeared through the door into another room.. Crosby seemed to be a complete natural with his son. Her heart longed to have someone who could be that way with a family. Annie began to wander around the room admiring the photos and the decor on the walls. The room seemed to a great big family room instead of an eating establishment. Squinting her eyes, Annie focused in on a particular picture of a boat. She was drawn to a man in a cowboy hat. Wow...
"That's the Time Bandit.."
Annie snapped her head around at the voice. "Excuse me?"
"That's the name of the boat you are looking at. It's one of the boats in the crab fleet."
"Oh. I know absolutely nothing about boats."
"You stick around this town long enough and you will. You must be Annie."
"Yes I am." Annie turned to look at a very pretty woman, tall, long black hair that fell to the middle of her back. The little boy definitely didn't get his hair from his mom.
"Aurora LeVeen. Owner operator." Aurora stuck her hand out to the woman.
"Nice to meet you." Annie saw Crosby come out the door with two kids in his arms. Twins. "Oh, my." The little girl had the same curly hair. Annie was at a loss for words seeing Crosby standing there holing his little girl and boy.
Aurora turned to see her husband and twins standing in the middle of the room. "Ah. Annie meet my two little kids and my big kid husband. That would be Cassie, Crosby and Cole."
"I met Crosby and Cole a few minutes ago. Cole was playing peek-a-boo with me from around the counter."
"Be careful around that one. He'll pull some kind of prank on you." As if Cole was cued, the little boys giggled and buried his face in his dad's shoulder.
"We are headed down to the docks." Crosby leaned down and kissed Aurora before she opened the door for him.
"Ok. Don't let them drive any of the boats."
"You're no fun mom." Crosby pouted and left.
Annie gaped at Aurora. "You look great for having twins."
"Your hired." Aurora smiled at Annie.
"I'm serious. How old are they?"
"Just turned two."
"Wow. Must be a handful having two running around."
"Not really. But you throw their father in the mix, and you have three children running around."
"He seems great with them."
"He is. Wouldn't know what to do without him." Aurora walked over towards the bar and sat down on a stool. "So, do you have any experience in this kind of work?"
"I do. I tended bar and waitresses for five years."
"Do you take crap off anyone?"
"Hell no."
Aurora grinned. "Good. Because this place can be a madhouse at times. You can't be afraid to jump in and tell the guys to shut up and take it outside."
"I've thrown my fair share out the door."
Aurora nodded. "When can you start?"
Annie was thrilled to have a job. It was also nice to work for someone like Aurora. It may sound odd, but Annie felt like she knew Aurora and her family already and she hadn't known them but a couple hours.
Annie was walking back to the Elbow Room with a couple bags from the grocery in her arms. Aurora had sent her out to grab a few things before the bar opened for the afternoon. As she made her way down by the docks her eyes roamed over the tops of the papers sack in her arms. These boats were even bigger than she could have imagined. The only boat she had been around was the small boat her father used to take out on the lake. That boat could easily fit on the deck of these particular boats. Then there were all of the cage looking boxes that were stacked one on top of the other. Whatever the hell those things were for. Then, things went to hell in a handbasket. Annie ran into someone or something and the sacks in her arms went flying and she tripped over her own feet. When things quit flying, Annie was sitting on her butt with grocery items scattered all over the dock, and she was sure that a few things ended up in the water.
"Oh, shit." Annie scowled, and then a hand came into view.
"Need a hand?" Annie looked up to the person connected to the hand and no words formed. The only two words that formed were in her mind and they were, cowboy hat. "Are you hurt?"
Annie shook her head and then finally swallowed. "No. I'm fine. Butt's bruised along with my pride." She grabbed the mans extended hand and he pulled her up. "Thanks. I'm sorry." The man smiled. Oh, lord.
"About what?"
"Running into you. I wasn't paying attention. I was gawking," then Annie looked back at Mr. Cowboy Hat, "at your equipment." Shit. Open mouth, insert foot."
"Excuse me?" The man smiled out right.
"I meant the boats." Annie grimaced and then started picking her mess up. "I better get back to the Elbow Room. Aurora is going to have my hide for this."
"Oh, I doubt that. My name is Andy by the way."
"Annie Sinclair."
Andy smiled again. Pretty woman. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Gorgeous smile when it appeared. He couldn't say it wasn't a bad experience having her run into him. "Nice to meet you. Did Aurora hire you in the bar?"
"Yeah. Not going so well at the moment."
"Don't worry about it." Andy picked up what was salvageable and put it back in a paper sack. "I seen all the tomatoes roll into the water. I'll go back up to the store and grab some more."
Annie accepted the sack from Andy. "Oh, you don't have to do that. Thanks again." She quickly turned and walked back down the docks and prayed to the higher power that there were no more hot men in cowboy hats standing in her way.
Annie pushed the door to the Elbow Room open with her foot and stepped inside. Crosby was wiping off tables and glanced her way.
"Whoa!" Crosby raised his eyebrows at Annie. "Rough first day huh?" Then Crosby smiled slightly at Annie's tousled blonde ponytail and rumpled clothes.
"You could say that." Annie stepped towards the bar.
Crosby tossed the rag on the table. "Here let me take those for you." He took the bags from Annie and set them behind the counter.
"Thank you." Annie plopped down on a bar stool and signed. When she looked up and seen the smirk on Crosby's face she shook her head. "Don't ask."
Crosby let out a snicker, "Aurora is putting the kids down for a nap, so she will be down in a few."
Annie shook her head and thought about what had happened on the docks. Great first impression Annie, real great. It had to be in front of Andy.
"What in the world happened to you?" Aurora stood in the doorway looking at Annie.
Might as well go ahead and spill it. "I ran into someone on the docks and tripped over my own feet. The tomatoes went into the water and my butt hurts."
Aurora sorted through the contents of the sacks and found most of the stuff still in good shape. Just minus the tomatoes. "Are you ok?"
"Fine. The whole crab fishing community thinks I'm a klutz."
"I wouldn't worry about it Annie. I have seen worse things happen then someone tripping on the dock." Aurora continued to work behind the bar, so Annie decided that it didn't do any good to mope, and she helped ready things for the rest of the day.
Annie finished her week without any embarrassing moments. So when she came to work one morning she was feeling pretty confident. She had avoided the docks after her unfortunate incident, so when Aurora asked her if she wanted to walk down to the docks she gladly accepted. Aurora and Annie took the twins down to the docks. Annie carried Cole because Cassie hadn't quite taken to her yet. Cole was quite the socialite.
It was warm for the first of August, and the docks where alive with activity. Crews were preparing the boats for the upcoming crab season. Annie had learned some about the industry, though she was still crab stupid. She did learn that the cage looking things were called crab pots, and that's what the crab were caught in. Ok, so her crab knowledge went up a couple points. She was now at a total of two.
Aurora turned to Annie. "I'm headed down to the Wizard to see if Crosby needs anything. Are you okay with Cole for a little bit?"
"Sure. I think we got things handled." Cole had his head resting on her shoulder taking in the atmosphere he was so used to. So, Annie walked down the docks in the opposite direction. Then Cole pointed and said a word that she hadn't quite understood.
"What did you say little man?"
"Bandit." Cole pointed again. Annie looked up to see a skull and cross bones on the front of a boat. The name in big white letters read Time Bandit. Ah, so that's what Cole was meaning. He was definitely familiar with this boat. Why, Annie had no idea. But soon enough she would find out. Cole waved his little hands in the air. Then he said a name that she was familiar with.
"Andy!"
Annie turned and watched as Andy walked up to them. Good god, he had a baseball cap on backwards instead of his cowboy hat and her heart skipped a beat.
"Hey Cole!"
Annie could barley hang on to the little boy as he wiggled in her arms to get to Andy. She let Cole down on the docks so he could run to Andy. She laughed out loud as Cole had the little-kid laugh going as Andy reached down to pick him up and toss him in the air.
"Morning Annie."
Annie almost didn't hear him because she was concentrating watching Andy with Cole. "Good morning. I could barely hang onto him. He really likes you."
"Yeah. My brother Johnathan and I have known Aurora for a real long time so when the twins were born, she asked us to be there godfathers."
"Oh, wow. I had no idea how close this fishing community really is until now."
"It's one big family really."
"So I see." Annie could see now how everyone could be so close. Then Cole went to jabbering again. He said something like, Cappy Any.
Annie glanced up at Andy, "Did he just say Captain Andy."
Andy nodded. "Yep."
"Are you Captain of the Time Bandit?" Then it occurred to her at that very moment that he was in the picture of the Time Bandit at the Elbow Room. Duh.
"During Opilio season yeah."
Annie raised her eyebrows at Andy. "I'm crab dumb here. What the heck is Opilio?"
"Oh, sorry. It's a different kind of crab we fish for in January. They are quite a bit smaller than the king crab."
"I will file that into my growing memory of the crab business." Aurora pictured in her mind the crew working on deck and a forty foot wave coming over the rails. And in January? She hadn't experience an Alaska winter yet, but from the stories that floated around, she wasn't really looking forward to it. Then to add to the misery, being on a crab boat in the midst of crappy weather. Annie cringed. No wonder everyone called crab fishing one of the worlds deadliest jobs.
"Are you ok Annie?" Andy eyed Annie for a few seconds. "You kind of wandered off for a minute."
"Yeah, I'm find. Just thinking is all. Well, I better be heading back to get things set for the day." She reached over and took Cole back into her arms. She had enjoyed watching Andy interact with the little boy. It tugged on her heartstrings and in her mind she wondered what it would be like to have a husband be so great with children.
"Ok. Nice talking to you again. Stop back by again and I'll give you a tour of the boat."
"I would love that."
Andy waved as he walked back down the docks towards his boat. Annie waved back and stood there for a minute or two. A voice interrupted her thoughts as she watched Andy stroll away.
"Are you checking Andy Hillstrand out?"
Annie spun to find Aurora grinning back at her. "No."
"Don't give me that. Your eyes were not up in the sky that's for sure." Aurora grinned at Annie and raised an eyebrow at her. "Hey I can't say as I blame you. He's not bad to look at is he?"
Annie shook her head and laughed out loud. "Hell no."
Aurora joined in her laughter. "It doesn't pay to be shy around this place. Andy is a great guy."
Annie liked Andy from what she had been around him, and she could count the minutes on one hand. Those minutes were great, but Annie's trust for men was practically non existent after her last relationship. She didn't see any relationship in the near future.
Andy sat in the wheelhouse of the Time Bandit mulling over the new gal in town, Annie. He couldn't figure it out, but every time he tried to strike up a conversation with her, she decided that it was time to go and poof, she was walking away from him. Andy didn't know her story but someone had hurt her at some point in her life. So, he decided to lay low and keep talking to her when he had the chance. He had the feeling if he pushed to far, he would completely loose her.
Ok, writers block kicked in and the ideas came to a hault. But I will write more when they come around again. Thanks for reading if you made it this far!!