Chapter 4: Roll With It

"Finding something new to do around the base." Belfast's words from earlier rang through Enterprise's head. "Does she want me to find a hobby or something?" Enterprise looked around the front courtyard, watching as a group of destroyers ran off in the direction of the school. Ark Royal was peeking over a newspaper at them, not even trying to hide what she was doing.

"Maybe it's better if I just go walking around until it comes to me…" Enterprise walked towards the school building, making her way through the park as she walked.

As she passed a bench, she was started by a white looking fur ball that fell to the ground. When she pushed over the ball, it turned out to be Laffey, who had fallen asleep holding a bottle of wine. Enterprise crouched down, running her hand across Laffey's forehead as the destroyer woke up.

"What are you doing?" Laffey asked sleepily.

"You fell down, so I made sure you weren't injured."

"Laffey is protected by Pauillac-chan." Laffey held up the bottle.

"I'm not sure that's what happened…"

"Shush. Laffey knows what she's doing." Laffey looked around the park behind Enterprise. "Would you like to come play games with Laffey?"

Enterprise gave a somewhat nervous nod, letting Laffey lead her back to the dorm building. After a few flights of stairs and a walk down a hallway that Enterprise had noticed was longer than she remembered, they had made it to Laffey's room.

When she opened the door, Enterprise was met with the sight of an extremely messy bed, and Long Island lying on the floor watching some sort of video. Laffey shuffled over to the television, and turned it on before sitting on her bed facing the television. Before Enterprise could even get close, Laffey fell backwards onto her bed, already asleep again.

Enterprise sighed, before exiting the room and softly shutting the door behind her. As Enterprise walked back outside, she spotted a small wooden dock off by the beachside, seemingly built recently. A long walk through town, waving at a few others including her sister Hornet led her to the sands of the island.

On the continuation of her walk, she saw something moving around in the water as she got closer to the wooden dock and small cabin. When she rounded the corner of the cabin to find the door, she nearly knocked her head on a sign that read "Fishing" in a pale green font. Farther down sitting at the end of the dock sat a redhead girl, that appeared to be a battleship from Enterprise's angle. As she approached the girl, her assumption turned out to be correct as Maryland turned around towards her, giving her a smile.

Enterprise sat down next to the BB, watching the water underneath them as Maryland held onto a fishing pole. "What brings you out here of all places?"

"I'm just trying to find something to do around the base. Belfast suggested I get a hobby so I wouldn't have to deal with… issues."

"Ah, I understand. So do you want me to go get another pole for you?"

"No, I'm good." Enterprise paused, looking out across the water towards one of the three bridges that connected the main island to a smaller one in the center of the bay. "Who lives in that cabin behind us?"

"I do. After we no longer had to go out and fight off Sirens, and the bases had merged together, I had become connected to the sound of the ocean. So I decided to build this cabin and dock with the help of Ingraham in order to keep having that sensation."

"Sounds like a nice place."

"It is. Except when the young ones like to come down extremely early in the morning and wake me up."

"What do you mean by 'young ones'?"

"What I mean is her and her group of friends." Maryland pointed out at the water, a dark blobby figure underneath the surface coming at them. The figure slowed down as it approached them, before popping out onto the surface of the water.

"Hello Enterprise," Bluegill cheerfully exclaimed.

"Uhm, hello."

"I guess fishing isn't for you either is it Enterprise. Well if you want to try something else, I heard Ingraham was building a model in the school library if you want to go take a look at that," Maryland suggested.

After a few minutes of chatting and saying her goodbyes, Enterprise went back the way she came. "Why can't any of these be close together for once," Enterprise complained as she walked up the stairs again, and towards the school building for the second time.

The library was a section of the school, a large 5 room complex of shelf after shelf of only books. Whether you wanted to read up on naval tactics, or read a cheesy romance book, there's a good chance the library had it. In the back room of the complex, Enterprise found Ingraham dangerously hanging off the end of a ladder as she tried to put a flag on top of what appeared to be an island.

As Enterprise walked closer however, it revealed itself to be a minesweeper. The flag Ingraham had placed upon the top was a Netherlands one, it proudly standing as if it was straight in the wind. Ingraham climbed down the ladder as Enterprise looked around the room, astounded by the art along the walls. One painting was of a Polish destroyer, another was of an old wooden American heavy frigate sailing through a harbor. The third painting was of an English destroyer, while the last one was a quite famous painting of two ironclads shooting at each other.

"So this is what this room is used for…," Enterprise thought to herself.

"Is there a reason for you to be here?" Ingraham sounded slightly annoyed, but was surprisingly calm for what she had just been doing.

"Uhhh, Maryland suggested I come see you about working on models…"

Ingraham wiped her hands on a dirty towel, and pushed her glasses back up onto the bridge of her nose before answering. "Is there something specific that you want to build a model of?"

"No, I just wanted something to kinda do…"

"I'll tell you what. You come back with what you want to build a model of, and I'll help you build it, alright?"

"Alright then." Enterprise turned around, only for the doors to burst open as a tanned blonde with pink tipped hair girl ran into the room, nearly smothering Ingraham.

"Marblehead! What did I tell you about grabbing me like that?!" Marblehead wrapped her arms around Ingraham's midriff, before giving the girl a kiss on the neck. Enterprise felt the situation growing uncomfortable, and slowly left the room as Marblehead continued to mess with the poor girl.

"I've failed you Belfast. I wasn't able to find something that interested me like you wanted." Enterprise started thinking about what the repercussions would be, but she wasn't able to picture Belfast doing anything more in a fit of anger than pulling her tie or pouting.

Either way, Enterprise felt herself wanted to get another look of the cruiser's smile. It felt different from what Enterprise had experienced before, but she just played it off as something her brain was playing with her. As Enterprise returned to her dorm room after a long day of adventuring around the base, she collapsed to the bed, weary. A few minutes later she had dozed off, only to awaken as Belfast entered the room.

"Did you enjoy today?" Belfast asked.

"I guess I did. I wasn't able to find something to do however…"

"Don't worry, we'll figure something out together someday." Belfast sat down next to Enterprise. Enterprise sat up to meet the girl in the eyes, only to feel a hand around her head as she was pressed into Belfast's cleavage. Belfast ran her fingers through the carrier's long hair, soothing her. Enterprise felt herself falling asleep again, but heard something as her eyes closed for the last time that day. "It's alright Lady Enterprise. I'm here for you always. Everything is going to work out in the end."

End of Chapter 4