Jillian got up and dressed once Jake and Josh left the room. On the way to the galley she stopped at the bathroom to wash her face, brush her teeth and use the facilities. In the galley Jake had made pancakes with sausage and eggs. Jillian sat down and served herself some food and dug in quietly. Jake and Josh kept up a steady conversation about nothing throughout the entire meal. Freddie asked Jillian how she slept with all the snoring in her room and she replied that she slept as well as can be expected. Phil appeared announcing to the crew that they were still a few hours from their pots but that the boat was covered with ice so the crew was going to start their days busting ice. The crew finished their breakfast and suited up. Jillian took extra care to put on as many layers of clothes as she could comfortably work in. Josh helped her into her raingear and steadied her as she stepped into the rain boots.

Walking out on deck was like walking into a freezer. Jillian immediately felt tears form and freeze on her cheeks as they leaked out of the corners of her eyes. She walked unsteadily over to where the guys were gathered around a fairly large pile of ice breaking implements.

"Start with the rails" said Freddie passing Jillian a baseball bat.

"Ok, is there a special way to do it?" asked Jillian.

"Nope, just hit them and the ice will break off" said Freddie.

Jillian nodded and walked over to the rail to get started. She managed to avoid getting wet for the most part, but the spray made by the boat was crystalizing on her eyelashes and the wisps of hair escaping from her hood. As she banged the ice off the rails she took time to learn the nuances of the boat, the way when it hit a wave it would almost always list slightly to the right and the way the water splashed over the rails almost always starting in the same place. Jake and Josh were on the bow breaking ice and tossing it over the rail into the water.

"I thought you were going to make Jillian use the sledgehammer" said Josh.

"She'll get lots of chances to use it if this weather keeps up" said Jake.

"So are you two friends now?" asked Josh.

"Lets just say she's growing on me, I guess" replied Jake.

Both brothers returned to the task at hand all talk of Jillian forgotten for the moment. The crew worked for 3 hours only taking occasional breaks to warm up in front of the space heater and grab some coffee. The majority of ice was off the boat and the crew had less than an hour to grab something to eat before they got to the first string of this trip.

Jillian walked into the galley and made herself a sandwich. The rest of the guys pieced together their meals before sitting down at the table. Freddie sat down next to Jillian and started to eat. Jillian immediately noticed a slight discoloration on the tops of his ears.

"Freddie what did you do to your ears?" asked Jillian.

"It's probably frost bite. I don't like to wear a hood because it takes away some of my peripheral vision" explained Freddie.

"You should get some earmuffs or something" said Jillian gently feeling the abused flesh with her fingertip.

"But then I wouldn't get such nice attention from the pretty girl on the boat" said Freddie.

"I'm sure your wife likes your ears and would like them back in one piece" said Jillian.

"She does like them, but likes other parts of me a bit more so I try to keep those parts in tact" said Freddie.

Jillian just rolled her eyes in response and turned back to finish her sandwich.

"Hey Jillian, will you check my ears next?" asked Josh batting his eyelashes.

Jillian looked up at him with a confused look on her face, then saw that she was being teased and glared.

"Come on Josh, even if you lost a little bit of ear you would have plenty left over" said Jake teasingly.

Josh just punched Jake in response, then Jake returned the punch and before everyone knew it the boys were rolling around on the floor beating each other up. Jillian looked on slightly aghast.

"Don't worry, this sort of shit happens all the time" said Corey.

"Do they ever hurt each other?" asked Jillian.

"Not often enough to prevent them from doing it again and again" said Corey.

Phil walked downstairs and looked down at Josh and Jake on the floor. He stepped over them giving one of them a fairly hard kick before sliding into the seat next to Jillian.

"We are a few minutes away from the pots, so suit up and head out" said Phil. "Jillian, have Corey walk you through the process out there. The weather is pretty fair so you should be ok if you keep your head on straight."

Jillian just nodded, she had no words to convey the apprehension she was currently feeling. A fleeting thought of dying flitted through her mind then was crushed into submission by the more logical part of her brain. Corey nudged her and she slid out of her seat and headed to the ready room to get her gear on. She heard the distinct sound of duct tape being torn and turned her head to see Josh coming towards her with a strip of tape.

"Jillian, I'm going to tape your gloves to your sweatshirt. It helps to keep our hands as dry as possible " explained Josh.

"Ok" said Jillian sticking out her arm.

When she was all taped up she slid into her rain pants and jacket and followed the guys out onto the deck.

The ice had already begun to reform on the deck making the surface ridiculously slippery. Corey walked her through what was going to happen once they started pulling pots. He showed her how to use the stick to measure the crab, which totes were for the keepers and which were for the throwbacks. He explained that if they were going to set back the pot then she would be responsible for jumping in the pot and hanging the bait. Jillian just nodded somewhat dumbly to all the instructions, she heard them but a lot of the language made little sense to her. She hoped that once everything came into action she'd figure it out. The boat approached the first set of buoys and Freddie threw the hook snagging them on his first try. The rope was in the block and soon the crab pot was in the launcher. The doors were opened and everyone except Jillian reached in and began to sort the catch.

"Jillian, I'm not paying you to stand there and stare at the pot" said Phil over the hailer.

The announcement shook her from her woolgathering and she reached forward to pull a handful of crabs towards her. She measured each one with the stick and then tossed it into the appropriate tote. Moving as fast as she could was no match for the other guys, they didn't need a stick to measure, they could do it all by sight. The ones that were close they put in front of Jillian to measure. Soon the pot was empty of crab and Josh passed her a bait set up.

"In you go Jillian" called Phil over the hailer.

Jillian climbed into the pot which to her seemed surprisingly roomy and threaded the bait through to Freddie who secured it. She slithered out and was back standing on the deck, the whole exchange took less than 30 seconds. Everyone on deck was shocked, none of them had ever seen a greenhorn get in and out of a pot faster.

"Wow, that was fast" said Josh as he slammed the pot door closed.

"No kidding, I don't think even Jakey could go that fast" said Freddie.

"I bet I could" said Jake cockily.

"No way, she practically broke the sound barrier getting in and out of that pot" said Corey.

"We'll time it to see who goes fastest" said Jake.

He walked over to the phone and told Phil about the contest. Phil agreed to use Sean's stopwatch to mark the times. The next pot came up on the bow and Jake was ready. The others sorted the crab as Jake did a few power lunges and stretches before Phil gave him the go ahead to start. He dove into the pot stringing the bait up in 28 seconds. Everyone cheered including Jillian, it was an amazing show of agility and quickness.

"Shit Jake I didn't know you had it in you" said Freddie clapping Jake on the back. A few minutes later the next pot was in the launcher and the crew was busy sorting the crab. Jillian went to the bait table and picked up a set up before walking slowly back to the launcher. She watched as the pot was emptied and waited for Phil to tell her to go. Phil told her to start and she was in and out of the pot in only 22 seconds.

"Jillian won by 6 seconds" said Phil over the hailer.

"Shit you're fast. I guess you will be diving in and out of the pots for the rest of the season" said Freddie.

"I'm pretty sure I was going to be doing that anyway" replied Jillian.

"That's probably true" said Freddie with smile.

The rest of the string was pulled over the next 12 hours and by the time they'd gone through the gear everyone was hungry and tired.

Jillian could barely get out of her rain boots she was so sore. Josh pulled the tape off of her sweatshirts and helped her take off her the two sets of gloves. Her hands were pale and wrinkled. Josh took both in his bare hands and rubbed them to try to warm them up. Jillian smiled and pulled her hands back so she could pull off her wet sweatshirt. All the guys watched as she pulled off the sweatshirt which pulled up her other shirts and exposed her stomach and the bottom half of her bra. Jillian wrestled the sweatshirt over her head completely unaware of her impromptu strip tease. By the time she got the sweatshirt off and thrown in the washer the guys had managed to school the looks on their faces to something resembling nonchalance. Jillian walked into the house completely oblivious to what happened. She walked into her stateroom and quickly pulled out a fresh set of clothes before walking to the shower. Her progress was stopped by Jake who was standing in his underwear at the bathroom door.

"Jake, you should let her go first since she kicked your ass in the baiting competition" said Corey.

"Or you could just save water and shower together" said Freddie.

Jillian took the moment to edge closer to the bathroom door.

"What do you say?" said Jake.

"I don't think so" said Jillian.

"Then you will just have to wait your turn" said Jake.

"That's fine, as long as I get to go next" said Jillian.

Jake looked at her for a moment, any of the others would have fought him for the right to go first and yet Jillian just agreed.

"Why are you ok with me going first?" asked Jake.

"Because I want to shower sometime this century and arguing with you is just going to prolong the process" said Jillian.

Jake just looked at her with a confused expression on his face. Jillian got frustrated and pushed passed him into the bathroom deftly locking the door before turning on the shower. Jake banged on the door yelling obscenities through her entire shower. She was in and out of the shower in less than five minutes and when she unlocked the door Jake fell into the bathroom.

"Done" said Jillian walking out of the room without a backwards glance.

Jillian walked back down the hall to the stateroom. Josh was sitting on his bunk reading a magazine. Jillian put her dirty clothes in the corner and sat down heavily on her bunk.

"You know he's going to kill you in your sleep" said Josh.

"That's fine, it will put me out of my pain filled misery" said Jillian.

"Are you hurting a lot?" asked Josh.

"On a scale of 1 to 10 it's an 11" replied Jillian.

"Lets get you some medicine" said Josh.

Jillian followed Josh slowly to the galley where he pulled a huge bottle of ibuprofen off the shelf above the TV. He poured out a handful and handed them to Jillian. She looked down at the proffered medicine, took 4 and left the rest on the table. Josh grabbed the other pills and downed them.

"I guess since Jake is in the shower we should start dinner" said Josh.

Jillian walked into the galley and opened the fridge. She saw a couple of pork loins and some vegetables. Deciding she'd made a quick pork roast she pulled out what she needed and got started. Josh acted as sous chef and soon the food was in the oven. Jillian set her watch to ring in 45 minutes and laid down in the corner of the bench seat. Phil came downstairs to investigate the delicious smells wafting up to the wheelhouse, he opened the oven.

"Don't open the oven, it needs to cook for a while longer" came Jillian's muffled voice.

"Jillian?" said Phil.

When he received no response he looked suspiciously around the oven and counters trying to find out how she'd recorded her voice to start when the oven opened. He was still looking around when Josh came walking into the galley.

"What's up dad?" he said.

"How did Jillian record her voice to tell me to stay out of the oven?" asked Phil.

"Um, I'm pretty sure she didn't. She's sleeping on the bench right now" said Josh.

Phil walked over and looked at Jillian's sleeping form. He walked back over to the oven and opened the door again.

"I told you to stay out of the oven, it will done when my watch goes off. If you're hungry get a fucking snack" said Jillian.

Josh started laughing hysterically while Phil debated whether to tell Jillian that was no way to speak to the captain or open the oven again to see what she'd say next. He was saved from having to make a decision because Jake entered the room wondering what all the laughing was about.

"Hey Josh, what's so funny" asked Jake giving his brother a not so gentle elbow to the ribs.

"Jillian just told dad to stay out of the oven" said Josh.

"Sounds hilarious" said Jake sarcastically.

"It was" said Josh laughing louder.

"Why don't you make yourselves useful and set the table" said Jillian.

She still hadn't bothered to open her eyes but from her comment it was clear she was completely aware of what was going on around her. Jake and Josh complied with her wishes and pulled out the plates and silverware. Jake slammed the plates down on the table in an attempt to startle Jillian but it didn't work. Her watch timer beeped and she got up and slowly headed to the oven. Testing the roast with her finger she determined it was ready and pulled it out. She sliced it and moved the roasting pan carefully to the table. Everyone was called to dinner and dug in ravenously, they all praised Jillian for the delicious meal before they headed off to bed. According to Phil they had about 3 hours before they hit the next string and everyone was hoping to get in a little rack time. Josh and Jake did the dishes and by the time they were finished Jillian was fast asleep in her bunk.

"I was thinking of doing the sleeping bag trick to her tonight" said Jake conversationally.

"Dude, I'm exhausted. We have less than 3 hours of rack time, wait to do it another day" whined Josh.

"Fine, but I'm getting her back for stealing the shower" said Jake petulantly.

"Of course you are" said Josh.

Both boys climbed into their bunks and were asleep before their heads hit the pillow.