"Well that wasn't so bad." Tex said as he and Jess walked to her quarters. They'd left Tom's quarters and grabbed a meal in the wardroom. It had been a quiet affair as Jess was ready to keel over from exhaustion. She felt the meeting with Tom had gone badly, she still believed they should've found the mole and delivered the asshole to Tom on a platter. But Jess had to admit Tex was probably right in the long run.

"I liked how you tried to con Tom into letting us have our own cabin." Jess said with a smile. She playfully bumped her shoulder into his. Tex grinned.

"He still said no." Tex said, they reached her quarters. She opened the door to find Rachel's bed empty as what seemed to be normal. Jess was pretty sure the woman slept at her desk or not at all. She was envious of that level of energy.

"Rachel isn't back, which means she'll be gone all night." Jess said, she looked at Tex. They were the only ones in the p-way.

"Are you inviting me to break the rules?" Tex asked in a low voice as he moved in close to her. She took a deep inhale and looked him over and nodded.

"Yes, but to sleep as I'm beyond exhausted." Jess told him. She just wanted to curl up against his body and sleep in the comfort of his arms. Tex looked both ways down the p-way before stepping into the room. Jess followed and closed the door.

"Top or bottom?" Tex asked, he kicked off his boots and placed them by the end of the bed.

"Top, Rachel sleeps on the bottom bunk." Jess said, she shrugged off her BDU jacket and hung it up in her closet. She took off her bra, then kicked off her own boots and stuffed them in the closet with her belt.

She turned to see Tex sling his belt around one of the arms of the bed frame. He climbed up into the bunk and Jess followed suit. She smiled as he closed the curtain. Jess closed the one on the end of the bed. Not that it really mattered because if someone was looking for her, they'd be stuffed as she couldn't hide Tex under a blanket.

"It's nice to know your bed is exactly the same as mine. Not spacious at all." Tex mused as they both settled into the bed. They didn't bother with the blanket or sheets given they were still fully dressed.

"Definitely not made for sex." Jess murmured as she knew exactly what he was thinking. She pulled the hair tie out and shook her hair loose before she settled her head on his shoulder. She sighed happily as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

"I think we could manage it. Not with you on top, missionary? Yes. Spooning, definitely. I think maybe a modified doggy style…could get a little dangerous though. Definitely do 69." Tex said thoughtfully, his left hand smoothed up her arm and back down in a lazy manner. His right hand rested on her side, his fingers were doing a little dance, that made her nerve endings wake up.

"I'm trying to sleep here." Jess grumbled, she felt his arousal which was only waking her up as her body was responding with a low thrum of anticipation and her own arousal.

"I'm just assessing the situation for future purposes." Tex said in a light tone, the man was playing her and winning as he knew all the right buttons to push with her. To make her ache for him until all rational thought was gone.

"I wasn't lying when I said I was exhausted."

"I'd do all the work." Tex said, Jess laughed as she lifted her head and looked at him. The man wore an unapologetic smile. "I've been in lockdown for months, I've got a lot of energy I want to burn with you." he added.

"I love you." She told him, she wore an exhausted smile. She dropped her head down as she was too weary to hold it up any longer.

"I could help you sleep, I remember how well you slept after I used to go down on you. I know you want me to go down on you now." Tex murmured.

"You play so dirty." Jess said completely flustered and so turned on that her resolve to not break the rules even more than she had was completely gone.

"You invited me in." Tex reminded her in a cheeky manner.

"I don't have any condoms." Jess told him, she hoped he did cause now all she could think about was feeling him on top her, in her. Everything she had been missing for months.

"Don't need a condom to go down on you." Tex said, which told her that he didn't either which was a little disappointing but something they could rectify later.

"I haven't shaved or waxed at all. It's a map of Russia down there with the legs of a sasquatch." Jess told him, a little self conscious as she'd always maintained a level of commitment to her grooming but months of being alone and assuming Tex was dead. Well, she let things go.

"I'm looking forward to the pleasure of revisiting the USSR." Tex told her, his eyes glittered with excitement and lust. Jess snorted a laugh as he pulled away from her and reached for her pants and undid the button and slid down the zip.

"Seriously?" Jess asked as he was definitely eager.

"As serious as a heart attack, Sugar." Tex drawled, he moved down her body.

Danny laid in his bunk and stared up at the bunk above him. Tex wasn't back yet, he had a feeling Tex was probably somewhere with his sister. Danny stopped at wondering what they were up to as he knew he didn't want to know. Tex had already made it clear that he had very amorous intentions towards his sister. Danny's nose scrunched as he didn't need to think about his sister's sex life at all.

It was bad enough his chances of getting laid had gone to zero. But it was the right thing to do. He and Kara were just risking too much. It had been fine when they knew they were a week away from being back home. Free to actually be together without repercussions. But now? There wasn't that chance, not until there was a vaccine. Even then, he had no idea how they'd make it work but he didn't want to give her up, or give up on them. He loved her.

Damn, where did that come from? He thought as he realised it was true. He loved her. The words rolled around in him, it felt right and yet so utterly terrifying. Terrifying as he could lose her at any point. He could lose her like he did Frankie. He silently cursed as he thought of his best friend, Frankie had been his brother. He told Frankie everything about his sisters, his life, they shared so much and he was gone. Danny would never get his insights and advice ever again. Or the playful ribbing when Danny took things a little too seriously.

Now his last memories were of Frankie blowing his brains out. Danny rubbed at his chest as he felt a deep ache, he felt the tears slide down his temples. He didn't fight his grief for once, he just gave in completely as he rolled onto his side and curled into a ball. He let himself feel it all, hoping tomorrow would be easier. But for now, he dearly wished Frankie were alive and that the world had not gone hell.

Somewhere in his misery, sleep took over. For the first time since all of this started, he slept like a rock. When he woke up, he rolled out of bed with a headache and sore muscles as he slept well, but he had slept with a tense body. While he was in physical pain, he felt more at peace than he had last night. He smiled as he thought of Kara, he was looking forward to seeing her.

He looked down at Halsey who was still asleep, his legs twitched as if he were chasing something in a dream. It was adorable, it reminded him of how he always wanted a dog. Well, he had one now. He just needed to get Halsey out of his funk and back to the dog he and Frankie knew.

He looked up at Tex's bunk and saw it was still empty. Danny shook his head as he reminded himself that it wasn't his problem. So, he focussed on his morning routine. Danny reached down and stroked a hand through Halsey's soft fur. The big pup sluggishly woke up and gave him a somewhat disdainful look as he wanted to sleep in.

"Come on, it's time to get up." Danny told him, Halsey yawned as he pushed up onto his paws and shook out his fur. Danny changed into fresh BDUs and grabbed his gear for a shower.

"Let's go." Danny told him, he opened the door. They both stepped out and headed to the showers.

When they got there, Halsey did his morning constitution in the shower. Danny cleaned up what he could and washed the rest down the drain before he went through his own morning ablutions.

After he shaved for the day, he packed up his gear and they headed back to his quarters. He made it to the p-way and carefully looked around to see if his sister and Tex were trying to do their mad dash to pretend they hadn't spent the night together.

"What are you looking for?" Tex asked in a low voice behind Danny.

Danny practically jumped out of his skin. Danny grunted in exasperation as turned to see Tex was right behind him no more than 6 inches. How the fur ball of a man was able to sneak up on him perplexed and annoyed Danny.

"You trying to sneak out of Jess' quarters." Danny said.

"Sneaking implies that I have something to hide." Tex mused, Danny knew the man had gotten laid. He was way too pleased with himself.

"Right, whatever." Danny said playing it cool by letting it go. If he was honest he'd played out the possible responses he'd get from Tex. There was a high chance he'd learn about his sister's sex life with the sasquatch before him. Danny didn't need those mental images.

"Well, Jess is gonna be tied up with the Captain for awhile. So, we should go get some breakfast." Tex said in a cheerful manner.

"She's with the Captain?" Danny asked.

"CIA stuff." Tex said with a shrug, he knelt down and gave Halsey a good rub down. They were spoiling Halsey with all the attention.

"CIA stuff." Danny repeated.

"You know, seeing what's left of the intelligence community out there and satellite networks. CIA stuff. It's all to help us get a better picture of the world out there." Tex said, now Danny knew what Jess had been up to in CIC. But then he'd heard rumours the Russian ship had been spotted and it was a big ship.

"I heard they spotted the Russian ship in CIC." Danny said conversationally. Tex rose to his feet and wore secretive grin.

"Did a little Western Meadowlark tell you that?" Tex asked in a teasing tone.

"A what?" Danny asked confused. Tex reared back and looked disappointed in him.

"Really? How you gonna hold a girl when you can't even identify the bird of the state she comes from." Tex teased, they heard a door open in the p-way. They both turned to see Kara step out, "Oh look, I just spotted your Meadowlark." Tex murmured in a low voice. They both stepped to the side to let Kara pass.

"Gentleman." she said warmly.

"Ma'am." Tex replied with a grin as he tipped his hat to her.

"Lieutenant." Danny said, they both nodded to one another before she continued down the p-way presumably in the direction of CIC. "How do you even know the state bird for-"

"Kansas?" Tex asked, before Danny could finish the question. Tex slapped him on the back. "I'm a student of life, my friend. Now, come on, I got a hole in my belly that I'm aiming to fill." Tex told him as he gripped onto Danny's shoulders and turned them in the direction of the wardroom.

"I have to dump my gear." Danny said, he pulled away from Tex's grip. He headed to his quarters. "So, what's the state bird of Connecticut?" Danny asked him.

"American Robin. It was adopted by the state in 1943. Jess was right impressed with that little nugget of information." Tex informed him.

"Yeah, I bet." Danny said dryly.

"Not that I don't appreciate being woken up at 4am, but we've gotten exactly nowhere and I'm starving." Jess told Tom, they had been pouring over rosters and personnel files for over an hour. While she was refreshed from a very restful sleep, she was also ravenous thanks to Tex and his talented tongue.

"Well, I'll overlook Tex being in your quarters, if you cut me some slack as I couldn't sleep knowing I have a Russian sleeper on the ship." Tom told her, Jess grimaced as it had been unfortunate to be caught with Tex snoring in her bed. But it happened and she wasn't going to apologise for it.

"You could make an exception for Tex and I, let us stay in the same cabin. Then we could work on narrowing this list of suspects down letting you off the hook to do Captain duties." Jess said as she flipped through yet another personnel file. Tom smiled.

"Nice try, Mike and I got it down to 50. There has to be a way to cut it down even further." Tom told her, he was exhausted and a little fried on too much caffeine.

"I highly doubt your guy is going to admit to speaking Russian on his personnel file." Jess argued as she placed three personnel files where they claimed to speak Russian into a new pile.

"Still can't rule those ones out. Are you sure you can't identify his voice?" Tom asked her.

"I might be able to, but people's tone and pitch change when they speak different languages. He could have a higher pitch while speaking in English. It's not an exact science and when we pull the asshole up, we want to be sure. Right?" Jess asked as she leaned back and stretched her arms above her head.

"It's preferable." Tom said, they lapsed into a companionable silence as they both looked at the piles of files before them. After a moment, Tom's eyes lit up, "I have an idea." Tom said, he rose from his chair and went to the wall. He picked up the phone receiver and dialled CIC. "Barker, send Lieutenants Foster and Granderson to my stateroom." he ordered.

"Going to let me in on this plan." Jess asked after Tom hung up the phone.

"I will, when they get here." Tom moved to his desk and opened up a couple of drawers, "In the meantime, here." he said, he tossed her an energy bar he had stashed away.

"Thanks." Jess said as she took the power bar. Tom cleared up all of the personnel files as she took a bite and made a face. "That's a flavour." Jess remarked, she didn't like it but continued to eat.

"It's not my favourite but it will do in a pinch." Tom said, he cleared all signs of their earlier work away just in time as a knock sounded at the door. Tom went to the door and opened it,

"Come in. Have a seat. Tom said as he ushered in Alisha and Kara. Jess moved to one side of the couch as Kara sat next to her while Alisha sat on the other couch. Tom took up his chair and looked at the two women.

"What I'm about to say stays in this room. I do not want even a whisper of it out there. Is that understood?" he asked them.

"Yes, Sir." Kara and Alisha said in near unison. Both looked wary of why they were here and what he as about to say.

"There is a Russian Sleeper agent on the ship. He is a member of the crew." Tom said, he watch an array of emotions play across their faces. He'd felt all of them; disbelief, betrayal and confusion.

"Permission to speak freely?" Alisha asked.

"Go ahead." Tom said.

"No way would anyone on this ship be working for the Russians." Alisha told him.

"Morley overheard them contacting the Russian ship on Comms. In our investigation we've found there is crossover between Bridge, CIC and Comms. We've narrowed it down to a few suspects but we have no definitive proof." Tom said, Alisha looked at Jess with scepticism who was not ruffled at all by it.

"So, we're going to find the proof and build a case without tipping our hand or engaging directly with him." Jess said, she knew where Tom was heading with this. Tom nodded in agreement.

"You three will work together to monitor his communications in Comms in shifts. When people ask what you're doing, you're going to tell them you're working with Morley. Sifting through satellite imagery of America and monitoring encrypted channels used by her colleagues waiting for them to make contact. When he contacts his handler on the Russian ship, we'll record it and store it on a USB stick." Tom told them.

"Sir, wouldn't it be better to identify who he is, then apprehend him and cut off all comms?" Alisha asked.

"We have to assume he has a fail safe in place in the event he's captured. Something to bargain for his freedom." Jess told them, she watched as Kara and Alisha didn't quite comprehend the situation. She didn't fault them, they weren't trained for this scenario.

"Like what?" Alisha asked.

"If it were me?" Jess looked thoughtful, "I've already found a weaker crewmember to blackmail into being my accomplice. Once word got out about me being arrested. They would create a distraction to allow me to escape in exchange for my silence on whatever their dirty secret is." Jess said casually, she wore a wry smile as Alisha and Kara wore uneasy expressions. Subterfuge and coercion was clearly not a part of their genetic make up, Jess was envious.

"Which is why when we can identify him, we will monitor his movements and then at a time of my choosing take him in." Tom told the women.

"So, this crewmember that you heard. He was using an open channel?" Kara asked Jess, she finally spoke up.

"No, encrypted channel. I'm assuming he has a SAT phone squirreled away somewhere on the ship." Jess answered.

"Sir, we could run a rudimentary wireless tap. We use the SAT phone, leave the channel open and use our personal phones to record it 24/7." Kara said to Tom.

"Add in mine and Tex's phone, we could change the phones every 6 hours depending on battery capacity. Smart, it saves us sitting in Comms. No risk of people cottoning on." Jess said impressed with Kara's ingenuity. "But where would we keep the SAT phone?" Jess asked.

"In Alisha and my quarters, we can hide it in one of our drawers. Share the audio files through Bluetooth to your phone. You can review them in your quarters." Kara told Jess.

"Then we maintain the cover of working together with the satellite imagery to recon the current state of the east coast. Alisha was going to ask Mike to allow her to compile audio recordings of people I think might be my friends. It will make sense for us to be seen together and talking without affecting your shifts too greatly. Brilliant." Jess said incredibly pleased with the brainstorm happening as it saved her from flipping through more personnel files.

"The only issue is the SAT phone." Alisha said.

"We can't sign it out as it would be suspicious after we pulled the SAT phone from the doctors." Tom added, they all paused for a moment as they tried to find a solution to their problem.

"Tex and I will steal one." Jess stated confidently.

"Excuse me?" Tom asked her incredulously.

"With permission of course." Jess drawled in a slow manner as she realised how it sounded given she was already in a precarious position with her having Tex in her quarters.

"How do you plan to do that?" Tom asked, he knew he ran a tight ship. He could not see how Jess could lift a SAT phone from storage without being seen or someone noticing it being missing.

"We're signing out laptops for the other work. Tex will just work his magic while I do mine. No one will get hurt. Hopefully no one will notice it missing for a while." Jess said in a vague manner.

"They will notice." Tom promised Jess. Alisha and Kara wore mixed expressions that made him frown.

"I mean no disrespect, Sir. But the crew in that department won't until someone asks for it." Alisha said in a careful tone. Tom sighed as he was starting to believe he really didn't know his crew after all. But he let it go as now was not the time to dwell on it or focus on fixing it.

"Ok, great, when I get the SAT phone. I'll bring to your quarters." Jess told Alisha and Kara in a happy tone.

"You may return to your duties. Lt Foster, Morley will be CIC after lunch to borrow you for the new assignment. Lt Granderson, collate those recordings Morley requested. You're both dismissed." Tom told the women.

"Yes, Sir." The two replied as they rose from their chairs and stood to attention for a moment before they left the room. Jess watched them go and when the door closed turned to Tom.

"Well, now will you be able to sleep?" Jess asked Tom.

"Is anyone sleeping well these days?" Tom asked as he leaned back in his chair and scrubbed a hand down his face. He looked at Jess who smothered a smile. "Except you, I'll say, it's good to see you looking brighter but don't rub it in." he told her.

"Speaking of, Tex and I-"

"Is it really important to you that you share quarters?" he asked in a dull tone.

"Look, I know it's juvenile to you. But I'm not acclimating well to being on the ship. Tex keeps me grounded and calm. I sleep better with him. I mean literally sleeping." Jess said, it took a lot for to admit she was struggling. But she didn't want to hide the truth from Tom. It didn't serve either of them for her to pretend she was ok.

"Fine, I'll look the other way. Just be very discreet." Tom sighed.

"Of course, I am the soul of discretion." Jess promised him.

"If I hear whispers or catch you two, I'll have to make an example." Tom warned her.

"Even though we're not Navy." Jess argued.

"As soon as you stepped on the ship you agreed to live by the rules and regs of the Navy. By that extension, my rules. I appreciate that you're civilians and married but I can't have one set of rules for you and another set for everyone else." Tom told her. Jess nodded slowly as she knew he was right but she couldn't help but push her luck a little.

"Copy that." Jess took a deep breath, "Now, I need breakfast as I promised my brother I'd help him train Halsey." she told him as she rose from her chair.

"That dog is more trouble than he's worth." Tom told her.

"That dog is a well trained operative that might turn into a ship mascot. But he's a long way from that." Jess assured him.

"Halsey is low on my list of concerns." Tom promised her.

"Thank you." Jess said, she headed to the door and rested her hand on the handle, "You said you looked at the surveillance feeds."

"Yes." Tom said.

"What about the doctors?" Jess asked as she looked back at him.

"What about them?" Tom asked.

"Did you watch them? The mole is in contact with at least one of them to know how far along they are with the vaccine. While he's careful, the doctors wouldn't be as they aren't trained to be sneaky." Jess said as it just came to her that they hadn't bothered to monitor the doctors.

"I beg to differ, given they hid their intentions from the crew and I for four months. But you might be onto something, I'll get Mike to download the last few weeks of surveillance. We can go through it later this afternoon." Tom told her.

"People are going to talk if I hang out with you too much. Just put it on a stick and give it to Tex and he can pass it on to me. I'll look through it. If I find something I can let you know." Jess said, she knew Tom was a busy man while her schedule was free.

"Ok, sounds like a plan." Tom said, he appreciated having it taken off his plate.

"Great, let's go eat breakfast." Jess told him.