Part Four – The things left unsaid

I pinch the bridge of my nose; the rest of the weekend had been one that left my insides tied up in knots. NC had closed that video call so fast after my slip-up with that word. I worried that I had screwed everything up with her at this point. I take a moment before reaching out to open the door to the secretary's office, fully expecting to not see NC sitting there. Letting that breath out, I open the door and feel relief, followed quickly by fear as I see her all but jump out of her chair behind her desk. She takes a moment to smooth out her uniform and run a hand through her long blond hair before she says to me, "Good morning, Captain. Did ya have a good week-"

She stopped herself there, sighed, and looked down before bonking herself on the side of the head. After a moment she looked up and waited for me to close the door before she spoke again, "' Course ya didn't Jack. What was I thinkin' askin' ya that?"

I sigh and rub the back of my head before crossing into the room, taking a moment to look around before I said, "I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that, and honestly I wasn't thinking when I said that."

She shifted around slightly, the tip of her white shoe on her right foot twisting around on the floor as her cheeks went slightly red and she mumbled out, "It's not that I didn't like hearin' it, but it took me by surprise is all."

I nod and sit in one of the chairs in front of her desk as I sigh and say, "It'd been on my mind for a while, likely due to how much time we spend with one another. And I'll understand if y-"

She stopped me from saying something else stupid by kissing me when the kiss broke; NC stroked my cheek as she said with a warm smile, "We're still datin'. I'm just not ready to toss around that word yet."

I felt so much better and felt the smile on my face as I said to her, "Well, glad we cleared that up."

She smiled at me and sat across my lap, leaning her head against my chest as she added, "I'm gettin' there, but that word comes with a lot of expectations on it."

Resting my chin on the top of her head as I slip my arms around her waist I say to her, "I get that, it was something I've been starting to feel, and I honestly didn't mean to say it so soon."

We sat like this for a few moments before she said to me, "Carol."

"Excuse me?" I ask.

She pats my hands and asks, "Can ya say it?"

"Carol." I respond and I hear her sigh happily.

"Can ya say it again?" she purrs out.

"Carol." I respond again.

"I like hearin' ya say my nickname." She says to me, pausing to add, "Since I get to call ya, Jack in private, ya can call me Carol."

I whisper in her ear, "Carol, Carol, Carol."

She turns in my lap and kisses me, when it breaks she looks like she wants to say something. After a moment I get a sense like she's changed what she was going to say before her words come, "We best be gettin' to work now, Captain, an' I've got the stuff ya need to see on your desk already, along with your mornin' coffee."

I wait for her to get out of my lap before I stand and say to her, "Thanks NC, anything you need to fill me in on?"

She shrugs and says while walking back to her chair, "Just that Admiral Thatch want's a video call in two hours."

With a nod to her, I head to my office and say to her, "Thanks for the heads up. I'll-"

She cuts me off with a sweet smile, "A fresh cup o' coffee in ninety."

I grin at her and say, "Best. Girlfriend. Ever."

She grins and makes a shooing motion with a hand, leaving me to laugh and enter my office.

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I pinch the bridge of my nose and sigh out a relaxed sound, the bell run for seventeen hundred and I just finished the patrol rotation for the week and posted it. I counted down inwardly from five, as soon as I reached one. My office door opened, and there stood NC, hands on her hips, a paper in her right hand. Her lips pressed together and she said firmly, "I'm goin' out too."

"I thought you'd like to stay in port for th-" I start to say and she steeps closer, cutting me off with, "I'm goin'."

"But I-" I start and she shakes her head, putting the paper on my desk and pointing to the assignment, "Enty's good, but she ain't great at getting stuck in. An' Washy's good, but she can't be watchin' the vanguard girls an' Enty at the same time."

"Ca-" I start again, and again she interrupts, "Don't start Carolin' me, I told ya before. If Enty goes out, I go to."

I sigh before I state to her, "It's not just a far-range patrol, you wouldn't be back till the morning when my family arrives."

She blinks a couple of times, as it starts to sink in and she looks at the deployment coordinates. Taking the paper off of my desk, she goes over to the map I had on the wall and asks over her shoulder, "Why are ya sendin' us out so far?"

"It was a goodwill request from the Sakura Empire, as you know the Eagle Union and Royal Navy have a… strained relationship with them. So my counterpart thought that sending a group of Eagle Union kansen to the port of Yokosuka would be a good way to foster some goodwill between factions." I say to her as I move to stand beside her at the map.

She sighs and shrugs before saying, "It's only twenty-day roun' trip."

I shake my head as I say, "Ten days out, seven days there, and ten days back. It's just short of a month round trip."

There was a silence that passed between us for a moment before NC spoke up, "We'll be fine. I made it two weeks without seein' ya. I can go a month, but ya better call an' talk to me durin' that time though."

I sigh inwardly and ask, "I can't talk you out of going on this, can I?"

She shakes her head and reaches for my hand with hers as she said, "Not a chance."

Squeezing her hand with mine I say, "Just be careful, alright?"

She turns and grins at me before leaning in and whispering, "I…" she leaned back and winked before adding, "I'll give ya the rest of that when I get back."

I laugh as I say to her, "You better. Any ideas on who to put on the front desk while you're away?"

She looks thoughtful for a moment before saying to me, "Well, I can't have her bein' someone that might try to steel ya out from under me."

Shaking my head I start to say to her, "That's no-" but she cuts me off again by putting a finger on my lips before saying to me, "An' she can't have a too mature figure either. I don't want ya lookin' at her that way while I'm gone."

I put my free hand onto her hip after I take her hand down from my lips and say to her in a slightly suggestive tone, "We can't have that."

She smiles and steps in closer to press herself against me and says, "So I'm thinkin' maybe Phoenix."

"I can work with that." I said before leaning in to whisper in her ear, "Do you want to stay over again tonight?"

She laughs and draws a little circle on my chest with her free hand as she says, "A month is going to be a long time to wait. But I've got an early mornin' comin' up."

I take a moment to kiss her neck, in a spot I know she really likes as I whisper, "I'm sure your CO will be alright with you being a little late tomorrow."

She makes a pleasurable noise as I do that before she says, "Just let me grab a change of clothes for tomorrow then an' I'll meet ya at your place."

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I'm woken up by the sound of an alarm going off, I know it's mine to signal the start of another workday. Once I have it turned off I sit up in my bed and see that bathroom just off the master bedroom has its light on and I hear the shower just turn off. I don't need to look in my bed to know that NC just finished a morning shower. A few moments later I see the door open and out she comes, her hair is still wet and down around her, a towel hanging over her shoulders and down her bust. When she spots me, a grin goes across her beautiful features and I spend a moment burning her image into my mind. While I'm doing that, she crawls onto the bed and over to me before kissing me, pushing me back down in the process. Once I'm lying on my back, she lays on top of me, keeping the blanket between us as she says to me, "I'm going to miss ya."

I slip my hands out from under the covers and around her to rest them on her stern as I tell her, "I'm going to miss you too."

My hands start to caress her back and stern, making her giggle out, "As much as I'd like to, I really can't this mornin'. I need to get ready an' head down to the docks to meet the task force."

I sigh before stroking her cheek as I say to her, "I know."

She takes one of my hands in hers, lacing our fingers together as she says, "Listen to me when I say this, I'll be back, an' we'll finish that conversation from your office."

I kiss her, deeply, before I go back to stroking her cheek as I say, "Last time it was an accident, this time it's not. I think I'm starting to love you."

I can see tears in her blue eyes and it takes me a moment to try and tell if they are for sadness or joy. I get my answer when she says, "You're just goin' to have to wait till I get back to know my answer, Jack."

I offer her a warm smile before I make a big production of saying, "Fine. Let's get dressed, grab something to eat, and then I'll come to see your task force off."

She pushes herself off of me as she says, "I like that idea."

XXXX

In a way, I was thankful that the manjuu and meowfficers are so efficient about getting the hulls stocked. And yet, at the same time, I hated it too because it meant that NC and her task force would be heading out today. I took advantage of what time I did have this morning to hold hands with her as we walked to the docks after we stopped off so she could grab some extra clothes for the trip.

Once we were at the base of the ramp leading up to her hull, she took both of my hands in hers, leaned her forehead against mine, and kissed me one last time before she headed up the ramp. I felt something in the palm of my right hand, but that could wait, right now I wanted to watch her go. As the task force headed out of sight, I sighed and opened my right hand to see a folded piece of paper in it. I tilt my head to the side and open it to see what is on it. I feel my eyes water a little as I read the note out loud, "Jack, I love you."

I smile before folding the note up and putting it in a pocket and make my way to a bench and unfold it again, just to look at the four words on it as I say, "Couldn't wait a month eh?"

When no answer came, I leaned against the back of the bench and sighed to myself, "This month is going to suck."

I don't know how long I sat there, just looking out over the water, thinking about the blond that I sent out there this morning. But I almost jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder, looking to my left I see purple eyes looking at me, framed with blue hair with in a short ponytail. She smiles at me and asks, "What's on your mind Captain?"

I relax a little as I take out the note and hand it to her as I say, "NC gave me an answer."

I watch as she unfolds the note, reading it quickly before folding it again and handing it back as she asks, "So why are you here and not with her?"

With a sigh I hang my head as I say to her, "She demanded to be part of the task force that left this morning, Lou."

St. Louis nodded, crossing her knees and gripping the bench seat as she says to me, "Sending her off must be hard for you."

I feel myself smirk a little as I add, "I spent all weekend worried that I had screwed things up, because of a slip-up I made with my words. And just yesterday she said that she wasn't ready to throw around that word."

St. Louis placed a hand on my shoulder again as she said, "I guess NC chose to take that leap, any idea why?"

I nod as I confirm, "She's going to be away for about twenty-seven days on a goodwill mission to the Sakura Empire."

Looking to my left, I see St. Louis give me a soft smile as she says, "Sounds like she didn't want to leave you in limbo or risk you thinking that a month was going to be too long to wait."

I sit up and lean against the back of the bench as I say, "Sometimes I hate that we are letting our jobs come first."

"I can understand that. It's hard to be professional when it comes to matters of the heart, Captain." She says, leaning forward a little.

With another heavy sigh, I ask her, "Hey Lou, I know NC suggested I ask Phoenix to fill in for her, but would you mind?"

She gives me a nod and asks, "Can I have a beer during lunch?"

I laugh as I say to her, "Only if you could, you know the regs as well as I do."

She sighs before standing and offering a hand to me as she says, "Come on, let's get to the office today."

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When I got to my quarters that night, my laptop started to make a ton of noise, a noise it makes when I'm getting a request for video chat. I sprint over to it and log in and see a beautiful face, framed in gold hair, I grin at her and say, "Hey you."

She grins at me as she says with that drawl of hers, "Hey yourself. Did ya read my note?"

I take it out of my pocket and say to her, "I did, I thought you weren't ready to toss that word around?"

She shifts a little on the screen, brushing her hair with both hands as she says, "I lied. Truth is, I've been wantin' to say it to ya for weeks now. I've known I've been ready to say it since we started datin'. If only 'cause we've been so close with one another for so long."

I nod and offer her a warm smile as I say, "I forgive you for lying, it's a big deal actually saying it."

She lets out a relaxing breath, a hand on the top of her chest before she asks, "So how's Phoenix workin' out?"

Rubbing the back of my head, knowing who she suggested and I tell her the truth, "I didn't slot her in, I slotted in St. Louis. She came across me as I was sitting on a bench after I read the note." I pause and see NC's eyes narrow a little, her nostrils flare, and her lips compress a little, I can tell she's mad. So I offer out, "I showed her the note, she knows how you feel about me. And I was upfront with her, that I was worried that I had screwed things up."

NC seems to relax a little, but I can still tell she's mad, maybe even feeling a little threatened as she says, "I don't like it, but I'm too far away to do anyhtin' about it."

"Carol," I start to say, pausing to see her attention snap up to me before I continue, "there is nothing to be worried about, I want you and you alone."

She smiles at me and puts her hands up in the air as she says, "Fine, I'll trust ya and her."

I grin at her and say, "Love you, Carol."

Her face goes so red and she gives such a shy-looking smile as she whispers back, "Love you too Jack." She sighs and looks down before saying, "I'm goin' to miss you so much on this trip."

I touch my screen and smile at her as I say, "I'm going to miss you too."

That was when my stomach made it known I needed dinner, NC laughed and said, "I better let ya go, sounds like you're belly's ready to bring down your quarters."

I smirk and ask, "I'll talk to you tomorrow?"

She grins at me and nods as she says, "Count on it."

I was about to say something, but she closed the connection before I could. Sitting back in my chair I look up and sigh out, "This month is going to suck."

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A/N: I know this was a shorter chapter, but I didn't want to skip over a whole month and I didn't want to do a big time skip in the middle of the chapter either. So that left me with a shorter interlude chapter this time. Stay tuned for chapter 5, NC meets his family.