Summary: follows the story and plight of the Andrea Gail and her unfortunate crew as they head off to sea for one more haul before the end of the season. A new crew mate joins them, the niece of Billy Tyne himself... things get complicated fast as a love found too late blooms and unavoidable tragedy tries to tear it apart. Bobby/OFC

Disclaimer: I do not, in anyway, own this story or the people in it. This was based off a tragic event rewritten as a book and then later turned into a movie... I'm just taking those characters and the story and adding a little twist to it.

Warning(s): Um... nothing really major. There's a bit of cussing, but nothing that wasn't said in the actual movie. So, yeah, nothing really warning worthy.

Special Thanks to all readers and reviewers:

CSIVinDieselAddict: Thanks so much for the review! I'm glad you've liked it thus far; and I agree. The lack of Perfect Storm fics out there is right out sinful.

LaLa-036: I hadn't watched the movie in years, I honestly think not since around the time it first came out... I was browsing through a video store and saw the DVD tucked away on a shelf for $5 and made it my own. I watched it and then got so frustrated when I wasn't able to find a single fic for the film that I just plucked up and wrote my own.


'The Perfect Storm'

Chapter One

Being a woman on an all male ship was going to be difficult. Deacon knew that much long before the idea to join her uncle's crew even crossed her mind. There was limited space, no room for privacy anywhere, and these were men... manners weren't always necessary when it was just them out at sea like they were in the real world. She'd be trapped on a boat for months with a bunch of rowdy, dirty, somewhat drunk fishermen. Needless to say it was going to be interesting. And honestly, she had expected the strange looks she got from each man, one by one, as they settled down on the boat that morning in late September. They'd all spent their hours, waiting for that sun glow of dawn none of them really wanted to come, hauled up in the Crow's Nest for one last drink in a comfortable, safe place. She could smell the liquor on them as they boarded, the harsh scent thrown up in her face as they waved and handed out their individual goodbyes to loved ones and those that mattered enough to them to be there on the docks that morning for them at all.

They hadn't much noticed her at first, too wrapped up in the departure to recognize her presence or feel her gaze on each and every one of them in turn. Uncle Billy had, upon her own request, given her a pretty good idea of what each man looked like before they had arrived that morning, and he'd given her a name for each of them as well: boney, weasel-faced Bugsy Moran who had a nerve pinching laugh and a soft, but desperate heart; tall, sturdy Sully Sullivan with his hard ass attitude and blond hair; dark skinned, accented Alfred Pierre who by far seemed to be the most mature or else just very accepting of the lot; gruff, bearded Murph Murphy who was built like a bear, but was at heart probably the most gentle. And then there was dark-haired, almost smokey-skinned Bobby Shatford with his sweet smile and naturally determined nature. Aside from herself, he was the rookie on board.

She already felt like she knew them all so well and she'd not even said a single word to anyone of them yet. Just watching them was good enough for the moment, perched up on the top step leading up to the wheelhouse - watching the way the each dealt with leaving loved ones behind to work a site where they had an equal chance at failure as they did success. Maybe not even so equal...

She gave the men a smile, though, once they started getting wise to her presence. She wasn't about to look as intimidated as she felt, she wouldn't give them that much of an upper hand just yet.

"Whoa, whoa!" Murph's brow was furrowed, forehead creased so deep that three, maybe four deep lines seemed almost cut into the flesh. He gestured up at her, the others joining around him with similar expressions on their faces, "Cap, we got a stowaway! What'dya think you're doing on board here, little lady?"

"This ain't a cruise liner, sweetheart." The Bugsy guy chirped in, looking smug with himself for some reason that alluded Deacon.

"Oh! No?" She tilted her head, a mock look of surprise on her soft face, "Hmm... I hadn't noticed. Thanks for pointing that out, Bugs."

Bugsy looked between his crew mates and Deacon, confusion lifting his smugness clear off his face. He pointed at her, leaning towards the man she recognized as Bobby who himself looked torn between confused, curious, and amused. Bugsy spoke to Bobby, voice dropped, but not low enough to escape her, "...she knows my name. Hey, hey... do I know her? How she know me?"

Bobby just shrugged, his eyes meeting Deacon's for a short moment before lifting his dark gaze to watch as Billy came out from his wheelhouse to stand behind the seated young woman. She followed his gaze up and back to her uncle, giving him a grin that he returned. He nudged her with his knee in the back of the head and she obediently made her way down off the steps onto the deck with the crew.

"Cool your jets, Murph." Billy chuckled as he too stepped down behind the girl, "There ain't any stowaways..."

Murph's dark brows shot up to his hairline, eyes shifting over to Deacon then back to Billy like the captain had lost his mind.

"She's not a stowaway, Murph." Billy gave the men a look, adjusting his ever present hat on his head.

A deep throated chuckle came from Sully, the tall man swaying a bit on his feet and grinning at the situation like it was all a clever joke he had been the first to figure out. "What then? You decided to bring on some entertainment for the rest of us? A little something to help pass the time?"

Deacon's brows shot up this time around, her jaw working tensely as she looked Sully up and down. Her arms crossed over her small chest, pulling the cloth of her blue t-shirt tight against her shoulders. "Excuse me? Entertainment? What the hell do you think I am, huh?" She snapped, her face going hard in a fashion the men had only seen happen on one other face among them. Even as they looked to their captain, confusion heightened by the mirror look of anger on her face they had so often seen on the older man's, Deacon was bowing up defensively. Insulted by Sully's remark. "I look like some kind of cheap hooker to you, Sullivan?"

Sully had gone silent by now, just staring at the slim, auburn-haired firecracker as she went off on him.

"What? Why so quiet now? Huh?" She went as far as to poke him soundly in the chest, finger jabbing him none too gently. "Say something smart-ass like that again and I'll bust your jaw, jack-ass."

Sully tensed up himself, anger raising as Bugsy snickered off to his left. He turned away from Deacon, rounding on Billy instead, "What's the deal with bringing a little bitch on board, captain?"

Deacon's jaw dropped a bit, brow creasing tenfold at the man's words and she took a step towards him as if she were going to physically fight the man three times her size over the comment. Billy grabbed her should, interfering before Deacon starting something he wasn't sure he was prepared to see her finish. And he had no doubt she would finish it - she had his blood in her, after all.

"Hey, hey, knock it off." Billy gave Deacon a push towards the cabin door behind them, nodding towards it after. "Why don't you go fix us all up something to eat, huh, Deac? Some breakfast?"

Deacon gave Sully a hatful look, one he returned full force, before nodding and stepping backwards towards the cabin doors. "Yeah. Yeah, sure... Whatever you want, Captain."

Billy waited for her to disappear through the cabin door, shaking his head and sighing as she slammed the door after her. Slammed it hard too, felt like she made the entire deck tremble in her wake. That was Deacon for you... he remembered that flair of temper even back when she was a little girl. Another trait of his that she picked up - she spent so much time with him back then he supposed it was only to be expected. He still thought it funny, though, seeing how much she was like him and how little she was like her own two parents.

Turning back to his men, he was amused to see them all looking about at each other, sometimes at him, clearly at a loss for what to think of all of this. They weren't even twenty minutes out of Gloucester and already things were getting hairy... never a good sign. He smirked at them, "That went rather well..." He paused, "...I guess..."

"Should of let me smack the little bitch, captain." Sully bit out right off the bat, earning himself a few disagreeing words and sounds from the men around him. "Put her in her place..."

"You touch her, you die, Sully." Billy warned, face tensing in that way the men knew better then to question him about anything when he used it. His voice was protective, fatherly protective. It was hard to miss and the guys shared a look.

"What the hell, cap?" Bugsy spoke up, gesturing to the cabin door Deacon had stormed through. "D'ya bring your kid aboard or something?"

"No..." Billy heaved a sigh, scratching the side of his head in a way that could almost be taken as nervously. "Her name's Deacon Gallagher, she's joining in on the site this time out. She's my niece... my dead sister's kid."

That got a nod out of Bugsy and Alfred Pierre, both seeming to find that a suitable answer and needing to know nothing else. The other three shifted their weight from one foot to the other, Bobby reaching up to rub the back of his head, bumping his hat with his hand and nearly knocking it clear off his head. Murph made a sound a lot like a groan, snorting out hot air hard through his nose, nostrils flaring in frustration.

"So, what, we got to split up the cut another way now just 'cause you got a niece who thinks she can fish?" Murph shook his head, clearly irritated by the idea. He took a step towards Billy, tossing his hand out towards the cabin door angrily, "Have you seen her lately, cap? That little thing ain't gonna be able to haul in a swordfish! The damn fish will crush her!"

"Hey, I don't know..." Bobby smirked, elbowing Sully in the side, "She looked pretty ready to bust Sully up real good." Bugsy joined him in a chuckle at Sully's expense, the blond man growling out an angry curse and giving Bobby a shove. "I think she's got spirit..."

"She does." Billy agreed, cutting in before Sully could carry on an argument with Bobby too. "She's a hard worker, has been all her life. She's not gonna keel over or wuss out when things get hard and dirty... She'd rather die then have anyone of you think she was weak just by the sight of her or 'cause she's a girl. Especially 'cause she's a girl." He looked to Murph, "And she's not asking for much."

Murph regarded the captain long and hard before he sighed, rubbing his forehead and shaking his head. "Not much? How much?"

"Less then Bobby got out of our last run." Billy gave Bobby a smirk, watching the younger man pop Bugsy upside the head as his crew mate snickered at him.

"Really?" Murph's hands were on his hips, his expression thoughtful. He nodded after another moment of thought, "...yeah? Alright, fine. But what's she gonna do? Like I said, the fish-"

"She can handle the fish." Billy cut in, giving Murph and the others a look, "She says she wants to do labor work same as the lot of you. Let her. Give her something heavy to do - she wants to haul in fish, let her. She wants to bait up the waters, let her. She can hold her own." He smirked, "She's my niece, remember?"

The men nodded, Murph still looking skeptical, but accepting his captain's word as law.

"But like I said," He arched his brows at Sully then the rest of them, "This goes for everyone of you filthy bastards. Deacon is as of now officially off limits - you so much as think an impure thought about her and I'll have you thrown out as bait with a hook up your ass faster then you can blink. Understand?"

The lot of them chuckled, nodding and 'aye, aye, skip'ing the captain with shakes of their heads and shifts of their weight. Billy nodded as well, gesturing off in the direction of all the food products cluttering the deck, "Good. Now do something about all this stuff. Put it on ice, get moving!" Another round of 'aye, aye' and they were off to do their jobs as ordered.

He watched them start to gather stuff up to be taken down to the food coolers, bickering amongst themselves as usual, before turning to head down into the cabins after his niece. He was more then sure that she would still be in a foul mood when he got there. He was right, walking in to find her muttering angrily under her breath and poking aggressively at the strips of bacon sizzling on the pan she had out over the little kitchenette stove. He smirked at her, leaning against the table with his arms crossed and his gaze fixed upon her back.

"You know," He began, "I typically toss a man overboard of trying to start a fist fight on my boat..."

She glanced over her shoulder at her uncle, scoffing softly, "Would have been worth it."

"Really?" She nodded and he shook his head, slipping his hat off his head and messing with the lip. "Yeah, but I wouldn't consider Sully worth losing your cool over, sweetheart. It's just his way to say stupid shit..."

"No excuse for being an asshole." She snapped back, transferring the bacon out of the pan and onto a large plate for the men to pick from.

"No, I guess not."

"And did you hear him? Entertainment!" She glared at the food she was preparing, "Did he think I was gonna start swinging around from a damn pole right there on deck for him? 'A little something to help pass the time' he says!" She huffed furiously, her auburn ponytail quivering behind her head, "I should of decked him."

"He would have decked you back." Billy countered.

"Good!" She whipped around to face her uncle, eyes wide and angry, "Give me more of a reason to shove a buoy up his ugly ass."

There was silence between them, both looking the other in the eye, completely still. Billy actually broke first, laughter bubbling up in his chest as he looked at his niece, lips pressed together tightly in a vain attempt to hold it in. Once she broke in an embarrassed smile, chuckling herself, though, he couldn't stop it and let the laughter out.

"Shove... a buoy... up his ugly ass?" Billy repeated the remark, shoulders still shaking a bit but laughter calming and evening out. He swallowed a breath of air, brows arching up to his hairline, "Is that a fact?"

"What? You don't think I'd do it?"

"Oh, no. Actually, I believe whole heartedly, without a doubt, that you would do it." Billy smiled, "I'm just wondering whether or not you could find something a bit better and more compact then a buoy to use."

"Yeah, maybe." She returned the smile, "...but the buoy's the weapon of choice."

He nodded, "Of course." He stood their a moment, just looking at her before lifting his arms and motioning her forward to him. She smirked at him, shaking her head with a sigh as she relented to his silent request and stepped up into his arms. He embraced her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, "No more with this mad stuff, alright? Sully ain't worth it, and I like it better when you laugh, anyway."

"Getting sappy on me, old man?" She lifted her head, grinning cheekily up at him.

"A bit." He nodded, then shrugged, his eyes dropping, unable to meet the girl's gaze when he spoke, "Just, you know... missed having you around, kiddo. It's nice to have you back."

Deacon knew Billy Tyne wasn't the best at expressing the more gentler of emotions, so the fact that he owned up to missing her at all was a feat in itself. It just wasn't in his nature to confess he loved someone, not even to family. She gave him a smile, backing out of his arms and over to the stove once more to finish up her cooking.

"So, where are the assholes now, then?" She asked, glancing back at Billy again.

"Storing the rest of the food down in the coolers." He gave a grunt like sound as he pushed up from the table and back straight up on his feet. "You done already? Want me to call them in?"

"Almost." She nodded, shutting the stove off. "Call them in, I guess. Don't see why I should feed them,though, what with the way they greeted me. Lack there of is more like it, actually." She shook her head, "All bug-eyed and 'what, what, little-lady'... enough to make me sick. 'S just rude..."

Billy chuckled, heading out the door of the cabin to go fetch the rest of the crew down in the coolers...


REVIEW PLEASE! Comments and constructive criticism welcomed!

I apologize for any and all spelling/grammatical errors that might be found while reading. I have no beta and I tend to read over mistakes...