She walked confidently over to the desk area. A woman in her fifties looked up from the computer screen.

"Good morning sunshine."

Olivia smiled. "Martha, good morning." She raised her hand and handed Martha the second tumbler she had in the other hand.

"You are a gift sent from up above… You know that right?" said Martha as she stood and took the tumbler from Olivia's hand.

Olivia only smiled. "Seems pretty… for the moment."

Martha eyed her. Luckily for her she hadn't said the C word. It wasn't allowed down here, otherwise it jinxed everything.

Martha took the tablet from the desk and handed it to her.

"Curtain number 3. They brought him in ten minutes ago."

Olivia looked over the information. "John Doe?"

"Apparently so. EMTs and cops couldn't find any ID on him and then he passed out… too much alcohol apparently on top of everything else."

"OK. I'll see if I can get a name on our mystery guest."

She started to walk over to the row of curtains. "And so, the day begins."

As she headed over, she looked at the data from the John Doe. His vitals were good. His alcohol level was a bit high, and he had an important head lac, that would need suturing.

As she grabbed the curtain to gently slide it over the rod, she heard mumbling from the other side.

"I think I need a doctor," she heard the tired and raspy voice say from behind the curtain.

She pulled the curtain a bit, letting herself in.

"Then you've been brought to the right place," she said as she closed the curtain, her back to the patient, "I'm Doctor McKinney."

She turned and her eyes landed on the patient. Their eyes locked and he smiled.

"I think I'm still drunk," he answered as he looked her over. This time around, she wasn't wearing a red skirt, black top, or hair down. On the contrary, she was wearing her hair up in a bun, wearing scrubs, a doctor's coat and had a stethoscope hanging around her neck.

"Either that or I'm having a really good dream."

She tried not to smile as she looked at the tablet.

"Well, at least we know you're not a John Doe anymore."

"He's not?" she heard Martha say as she walked inside with some medical equipment.

"No. Nurse Fallon, allow me to introduce you to Lieutenant Jake Seresin."

Martha put the material on the cabinet and looked at Jake. "Pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant. Good thing they brought you to the Naval Hospital, this won't cost you a thing… aside maybe from your ego getting shamed."

Olivia put her stethoscope over her ears, as Martha left, and leaned in to listen to Jake's heart and lungs.

"You remembered my name," he said in a half whisper.

Even if it was in a half whisper, she had heard him loud and clear through her stethoscope.

She removed the stethoscope from her ears saying nothing and took out her light. She placed herself in front of him and checked for pupil reactions. She made him follow her finger from left to right, then up and down.

"Aside from that nasty gash on your forehead everything looks fine. You want to tell me what happened?"

He shrugged. "Had too much to drink and then I believe there was a bar fight."

She looked at him and he could tell she was not pleased.

"It's obvious you had a better evening than I did. How was your movie?"

"Fine. I'll get the suture kit and when I'm done you can go."

"I could stay here all day and watch you work," he said still slightly under the influence. It's not that it wasn't true, but it affected his capability of filtering what was coming out of his mouth.

"Maybe but you're going to have to free up the bed. I'll be right back."

He watched as she disappeared behind the curtain.

She returned a few minutes later with the suture kit and a pair of gloves.

He watched silently as she prepared the local anesthetic in the syringe then put her gloves on.

"This might sting a little, but it will only be a few seconds," she said as she neared his forehead with the needle.

"Be my guest," he replied jokingly.

Once she had numbed his forehead out, she waited a few minutes before starting to suture him up.

"There," she said as she put the thread and needle on the sterile dressing resting on the countertop, "you're all set. Nurse Fallon will come and put a sterile dressing over it. You'll need to come back or have someone at the base infirmary remove them in 7 to 10 days."

"You don't make barrack calls?" he asked again jokingly.

"No."

"Anything else I should know?"

"If it gets swollen, hot, red, painful or leaky, then it could mean the start of an infection and you should get it looked at immediately to start antibiotics."

Their eyes locked.

"I meant about you."

"You're my patient and I'm your doctor, that's all you need to know."

He tilted his head to the side. "And yet, last night I wasn't your patient and you seemed more than happy to strike up a conversation."

The way his eyes were digging deep into hers was not something she was used to. Maybe it was because of his alcohol level, but Beau had never looked at her that way. It rattled her.

She broke the eye contact and grabbed a hold of the curtain. "Keep an eye out for infection."

With that she disappeared. After a few seconds he heard her ask the nurse to go and place the sterile dressing on his sutured-up gash.

Ten minutes later, a free man, he stepped out from behind the curtain and looked around. She was nowhere to be seen.

Outside he hailed a cab and returned to base.

An hour later Javy walked in with a smirk on his face which then turned to disbelief.

"What the hell happened to you?!"

Jake was laying down on his cot staring up at the ceiling.

"After you left with Kiley, I believe there was a bar fight I somehow either got involved in or became a victim of collateral damage."

Javy sat on his cot, next to Jake's. "You never told me what happened with that girl you were looking for."

Jake sighed. "Well remember when I said that no one, including Cyclone would be able to rain in on my parade?"

"Yeah."

"Well, he rained in on my parade. He's dating the girl."

Javy' eyes grew big. "Cyclone is dating the girl you had the hots for?!"

"I know right? There is one girl I'm interested in the entire bar and Simpson has already called dibs."

Javy shrugged. "So, big deal. In a couple of days, he'll either fly out or sail out and you can hopefully run into her again."

Jake nodded. "That's what I thought, but believe it or not, Simpson is now stationed here and not in any hurry to ship out."

Javy seemed to think for a few seconds. "Simpson is a jerk. What is a girl like that doing with a guy like him?"

Jake smiled. "That is a question I also have for the universe, but I doubt I'll get an answer."

"Sometimes the universe works in mysterious ways, and it could be in your favor," replied Javy.

"Exactly and I do think the universe tried to send me a sign."

"Yeah? And what would that be?"

"She was the ER doctor that treated me."

"She's a doctor?! Damn, now I'm even more curious as to what she's doing with Cyclone."

"She was gentle."

"She's supposed to, she's a doctor."

"She smelled really good too… Vanilla, I think."

Javy sighed. "Look, I take back what I said about the universe. I think you need to get this girl out of your head. If she is dating Cyclone, you need to back down. What you need is another night out and this time, I suggest we wear our uniforms to reel in the women."

"Speaking of women, how did it go with Kiley?"

Javy grinned. "That girl has way more talents than mixology."

By mid-afternoon, Jake was 100% sober, had gone running on the beach and ended up strolling the streets of a flea market with Bradley and Natasha. They had asked what had happened to his head and he said it had been nothing.

Javy had plans with Kiley and every one of them knew what that meant. No matter how hard he tried, Jake couldn't get Olivia out of his head, even when his mind kept reminding him that she was seeing Cyclone.

As they headed back to base, he turned to Natasha.

"Would you ever date an older guy?"

She blinked a couple of times not prepared for that kind of question.

"I don't know, and I never thought about it. Why?"

"No reason, I'm just curious."

She seemed to ponder his question for a minute. "I think it would depend on the guy. If he treats me right and is nice, I don't see where the problem would be."

"What do older men have that we don't?"

Bradley and Natasha looked at each other puzzled.

"I don't know," she replied, "maybe more experience, more maturity."

He grimaced. "Are you saying I'm immature?"

"Hey, you asked. And need I remind you that you are the one who doesn't want to commit in a relationship. Maybe that is something older, more mature men do, and it attracts women?"

"Speaking of women," said Bradley, "your charm didn't work last night?"

Jake narrowed his eyes. "It worked but let's just say that it didn't get as much time as it should have, to have the wanted impact."

"Seems like you've met your match," replied Bradley jokingly.

As they headed toward the barracks, Natasha spotted Cyclone.

"You think there's a special mission in the works and that's why we're all here?"

Jake flinched upon seeing Cyclone.

"Don't think so."

"How would you know?" replied Bradley.

"Because I ran into him last night at the bar I was at. Believe it or not, our favorite Vice Admiral is now stationed here."

"No shit? Well, you won't hear me complaining about not seeing him every time we head back to San Diego," replied Natasha. "There is something about him that gets underneath my skin… in a bad way."

"Like what?" asked Bradley before Jake could do the same.

"I don't know, he sometimes gets a look in his eyes, and it gets scary. And to top it all off he's smug and self-righteous. I may trust him from a Navy point of view, but I wouldn't when it comes to my personal life."