*Ah, thank you for even clicking on this. I've been creeping on Deadliest Catch fan fics for awhile now, and all these ideas have been brewing. I finally worked up the courage to post my own, and I hope you enjoy it half as much as I enjoy reading all of yours! Feedback is MUCH appreciated. And, of course, I don't own any of these people. Chris is my own creation, and I'm sure I took some liberties with the whole crabbing process as well as a few of these guys. But I'm not associated with Deadliest Catch in any way, so suing my ass won't get you anything. I don't have anything to sue, anyway. Read and enjoy!*"So, where's my team?" Andy asked, shoving his hands in his pockets. The crew of the Time Bandit yelled some insults at each other as they hurried to get the boat ready for the season.
"That," Jeff Conroy mumbled, scanning the docks, "is an excellent question. Don said they'd be here by now."
"Well, if this new cameraman isn't here in 10 minutes, they'll miss our suit drills. And if they miss our suit drills, they don't sail with us. You know that," Andy shrugged. "If we don't leave soon, we'll get caught up in that storm."
"They'll be here," Jeff said to assure both of them. Maybe he'd made a mistake in promoting Don Bland to producer. Almost all of his greenhorn producers and cameramen had left after the red king season, so he'd had a lot of shuffling to do. Don had been one of the ones to benefit from that, and Chris was one of those iffy new people that would probably fit in and be wonderful if they played all their cards right and didn't die of seasickness. If Don didn't get the greenhorn there in time, though, Jeff had a bad feeling about Chris ever fitting in.
Of course, they were somewhere in Dutch Harbor. The production crews had been there for nearly two weeks rigging the boats for filming. Jeff had personally briefed Chris over how hard this job was, and how particularly hard life would be for the greenhorn. So, where were they now?
As if to answer his question, he felt a glare hit the back of his head. Chris was there, cheerful as ever. He told Andy as much, but Andy glanced around him and shook his head. "Don and his girlfriend are here. Ain't no cameraman."
"Andy," Jeff glanced heavenward for a little strength as Johnathan hopped off the boat onto the dock, "you're not getting a new cameraman."
"Great, 'cuz we're doing suit drills now, and I'm not waiting for latecomers!" John announced, shoving a suit at his brother. "Let's go." Andy shoved the suit back absently and narrowed his eyes at Jeff.
"What're you sayin?"
"Sorry that took so long. There was an issue recording who had what sat phone. It's all sorted," Don announced as the pair pulled up to Jeff and the Hillstrands.
"S'fine," Jeff shook his head, really not caring now that his team had actually made it in time. He probably should have planned how to break this news, but he'd secretly hoped the Hillstrands would find out another way. "You guys know Don. This," he pointed to the tall, fit brunette next to their boat producer, "is Christina Menden. She'll be your new cameraman this season. …Camerawoman."
The dock was, if possible, completely silent. The crew wasn't yelling, the brothers weren't sniping at each other, nothing. Christina looked between Jeff and the Hillstrands as the brothers processed the information in complete silence. Don shrugged at her helplessly, and she finally just rolled her eyes and stuck out her hand. "You can call me Chris."
That seemed to snap them back to reality. John reached out slowly to shake her hand, but Andy finally got the sense to glare and snap, "She will not be on our boat." John snickered as he shook her hand and introduced himself. "She won't. No women on board. Golden rule."
"Hell, I know that," John shrugged. "But I can still be civilized, can't I?"
"You're not coming on the boat. It's simple, really. A woman on board is bad luck, and we've had enough bad luck in our time," Andy continued.
Chris rolled her emerald eyes skyward and mumbled something under her breath. "Do you know why it's bad luck to have a woman on board, Captain Andy? No? Johnathan? Not you, either? See, I was supposed to be a lifer in the Coast Guard, ended up serving for 11 years, so I know my fair share of fun nautical facts. Women are bad luck on a boat because they don't know all of the other superstitions and will probably do something else to bring bad luck to the crew. I've spent more than my fair share of time on the water," she cast a dirty look at Jeff, "so I can assure you that I know and respect all of that. I won't be bringing bad luck to your ship. Now, could I please whoop all your asses at survival suit drills, or do we need to argue about cooties some more?"
There was a pause in which Chris and Andy locked gazes like two dogs ready to fight over territory. It took a moment for anyone to muster the courage to move, but Jeff Conroy finally patted his greenhorn's back and headed back down the docks to check on the Northwestern. He didn't need to see Andy's reaction. She was in.