LT Tuna Medwick had only one thing in mind: bed.

Bed for the next blissful 12 hours if he could manage. Making his way out of the shower he sighed heavily as he had no other choice but to admit he wasn't that young anymore. Contrary to when he was a 25 year old buck, nowadays the times he got shaken and bumped inside his cramped flying hunk of metal and wires, the bruises lasted longer and the pains hurt just as long.

Sighing, he booted up the laptop, then changed into his sleeping clothes, t-shirt and loose boxers.

Running the terrycloth towel through his hair he mused it was nearly time to get them cut again.

Moving across the room to sit in the desk chair he twisted the top off a water bottle that had by now adjusted to the room temperature and grabbed the computer mouse.

Checking his email was his first and only order of business. Needing to let his loved ones know he was still alive took priority over everything, even sleep, so with eyes getting bleary he clicked on his mail app, where 3 unread messages were waiting for his attention.

The first two were from the usual suspects and he quickly sent a reply. With that out of the way he could feel his breathing slow as his body was preparing to go to sleep. He'd almost shut the computer down, but remembered in time there was one last message to read.

Seeing the sender was rabb_harmon_jr jag. navy. mil, his curiosity increased. The last he or anyone had heard of Harm was the email that blundering idiot Sharkbait managed to delete before reading. The fact that Harm had emailed SHARKBAIT, the biggest trap in the squadron, instead of anyone else had made Tuna wary of what had been in that message. Sharkbait had requested the message to be sent again, but nothing had arrived over the satellites yet. Maybe this piece of correspondence was the welcome explanation of his friend's baffling tactics.

Clicking on the only unread email left, Tuna had to wait for only 3 seconds for the message to open in it's entirety, nothing strange with 5000 people on board, using a single internet connection.

When it did, the arm that had brought the water bottle to his lips froze as Tuna's brain almost disconnected, his eyes bulging from shock they almost fell out of their sockets.

Only when he forgot to swallow as well and most of the water splashed down his chin on his clothes did he come back to the reality, jumping up and yelling in frustration over the wetness "Freaking hell!"

Tearing his T-shirt off and throwing it in a corner, he closed his eyes, rubbed them fiercely and, taking another breath, opened them again.

Yup, it was still there.

"Holy crap, I can not believe this."

Bolting out of his stateroom he yelled "Kitty, Slider, Shark, guys, get your sixes in gear!"

Within a minute he had almost the entire squadron crowding in his room, demanding answers what was wrong, concerned expressions on their faces.

In answer Tuna mutely pointed at the screen.

The complete silence lasted for a good minute.

"Holy shit!" finally breathed Slider, the first to break the quiet, then checked with the room's rightful occupant "Think it's fake?"

"Dunno." Tuna shrugged helplessly as he continued to stare at his computer screen. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't tear himself away.

"Skates'll be back next week, we can ask her then." reminded Bugsy, keeping a brave face.

Tuna nodded, feeling sorry for the kid. He'd guessed a couple of months ago something nobody else knew, that the kid was nursing a crush on the pretty female RIO. But, then again, EVERYBODY was nursing a crush on the tiny Lieutenant.

"Well, that Elvis in the background sure looks genuine." noted Crash.

"Well, you should know him by now, you're ol' pals!" shot back Zombie, receiving the bird in return "Hey, don't blame me if you keep on tying the knot with every skirt you meet!"

"Guys!" said Tuna sternly to shut up the two men, as the oldest of the bunch he'd taken on the role of the older brother, with CAG the father. The mother run off long ago, which was nothing strange with such a crazy family...

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