Kris spent the night with Phil in his bed. She thought it ironic, that before all of this had happened, her spending the night in the captain's stateroom would have caused a stir on the boat. But now, given the circumstances, the crew seemed more at ease then they had been in a week, knowing that she was there watching out for him. Watching Phil had kind of fallen on Josh's shoulders since he'd gotten sick, and Kris knew he had been extremely exhausted working both jobs, so she figured he was sound asleep wherever he had dropped for the night.

Phil slept soundly, only turning over a few times. Heavy sobbing will do that to a body. Kris had never seen Phil so upset and scared, and it still gave her a chill to think about it. Part of what attracted her to him was his toughness. He was the type of man who could withstand anything and everything. Well, most things anyway. She watched him as he slept, smoothing his hair and touching his face. She thought back to her stay in the hospital back in December and everything that had happened between them, and thanked God that Phil had finally opened up to her. He really did trust her, he had just wanted to protect her from worry. She chuckled as she shook her head at his stubborness.

As she settled back in behind him and wrapped her arm around his waist, Kris closed her eyes and prayed that the trip into St. Paul wouldn't take too long, and that Phil would get the help he needed....

*****************************************************************************

The next morning dawned ugly. It was cold, snowing and the waves growing bigger by the minute. Phil had awakened first, hearing the guys out in the galley. He sat up and swung his legs over the bed, moving slowly so as to not fuck anything up again. Lord knows last night was enough for the rest of his life!

He stood and got dressed, turning around to look at Kris. He hated making her worry about him. Sometimes he wondered if she was too good for him. He wasn't sure what he had done to deserve her, but he was eternally grateful for the cupid that brought her to him. As he watched her sleep, she woke up and rolled over.

"Where are you going?" she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "You need to get back in bed."

"Don't worry, I'm just heading up to check on things" Phil answered. Kris sat up and gave him a stern look. He saw it, and threw his hands up. "I'm fine, I swear. I feel a whole lot better now." Kris wasn't convinced. "Really!" he replied.

Kris got up and walked over to him, putting her arms around his neck. She kissed him lightly on the lips, and pulled back to look in his eyes.

"You look better...." she said. "You slept pretty soundly last night."

"Yeah, first time in a while" Phil answered. He smiled down at her. "That's because you were here with me".

Kris smiled back. "Of course! Nurse Kris to the rescue!"

Phil laughed. "Now THERE's something we should try.....you know, when I get better...." Phil reached around and grabbed Kris's ass, squeezing it. Kris yelped at the contact and quickly moved his hands away.

"You're still sick, mister!" she said. "We have to get you better before any of that...."

"Hey, you guys decent in there?" said a voice from the other side of the door. Phil dropped his hands and the two moved a few steps away from each other like a teenage couple caught in the basement. They looked at each other a moment, realizing their actions, then started to laugh. Unfortunately, the laughing turned to coughing for Phil, and he moved to sit on the bed to get himself under control as Kris opened the door. It was Murray.

"Hey, how you doing this morning?" he asked Phil as he entered the room. Phil had stopped coughing and was spitting more blood into a tissue. He wiped his mouth and looked up to Murray.

"I'm better, thanks" he answered. He got a skeptical look from Murray, and reiterated his point again.

"Well, just wanted to let you know that we'll be at the entrance to the harbour in about 20 minutes" Murray said. "I thought you might want to take her in".

Phil got up and walked with Murray out of the room. "You know it!" he said, smiling. Just the simple act of getting back into his chair was enough to pep him up. Kris followed them out, tidying things as she went.

"Be careful" she said after them. "And call me if you need anything!" Phil waved her off, and headed up the stairs. Murray rolled his eyes, again at the man's stubborness. One thing could be said for Phil's crew - they all knew their captain like the back of their hand!

Kris headed to her room to change out of her night clothes and get ready for the day. Since they were heading into St. Paul, she didn't really need to cook anything big since the guys would probably hit up one of the local restaurants anyways. Plus, they'd be busy with the offload, so she thought it best to gather up Phil's things for his trip to the clinic to get checked out. As she finished getting ready and opened her door to head back out, she was surprised to see Josh standing there, arm up as if he'd been just about to knock. Kris took a step back, slightly startled.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you" he said.

"No problem" answered Kris, her hand still over her heart. "I wasn't expecting anyone to be standing there, that's all! What's up?"

"I just wanted to thank you" Josh said quietly. "For staying with Dad last night. I should have asked you earlier, but he didn't want me to let on to you how bad he was".

Kris nodded, Phil's own words of her keeping his latest secret from the boys echoing in her head. Before she had time to think about telling him, Josh continued.

"Man, I don't think I even moved last night once I hit the bed. I've been so tired, checking in on Dad and working the deck".

"Yeah, I know you must have been beyond exhausted" Kris replied. "I actually thought you might still be asleep!"

"On this boat?" asked Josh, sarcastically. "Not a chance! Dad may be sick, but he's still in charge! He'd kick my ass!!" They both laughed, knowing that it was the truth!

"But seriously, thank you so much" said Josh. "He really loves you, you know. I'm glad you guys are together".

Kris smiled. "Thank you Josh, it means a lot to hear that". Kris knew how hard it was for some kids to approve of their parent's girlfriends or boyfriends. To get that acceptance from Josh was a big deal to her.

Josh smiled back at her, and looked down at the ground, somewhat shyly. "Yeah well......" he seemed to be at a loss for words, "I better get back up on deck. He'll be yelling at me next thing!" He turned to head back down the hall. "Talk to you later!"

"Yup. See you in a little while!" replied Kris. She turned back to her things that she had dropped when Josh surprised her, and gathered them up. She poked her head back out the door and looked down into the hall. Something was......different. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something just felt......different. She shrugged it off as she headed out to the galley, figuring it was just the stress everyone was feeling. I mean, what else could it be................................