My professors unanimously decided that they would all end their courses a week earlier than planned, so all my courses sped up. Since all of these finals sans Physics were projects, it has been a nightmare. Combine that with talking with my recruiter for the real USN and brushing up on the topics for the ASTB I have been ground down. I took it once, now, and got 56 5/5/5. A little on the lower end for accepted applicants, but still decent for a student naval aviator. I'll be taking it again before the next Board to raise my score for better odds. Evil Angled Parking Lots.

I also made a mistake in the timeline with Prince of Wales and Electra being in England on December 7th. They both should've been in the South China Sea by then, having left in October. While it doesn't break anything storywise, it's a little annoyance that I wanted to correct for you all.

::

Hood

::

Enterprise didn't know what the fuck she was talking about.

Hood had been making tea ever since she had been given hands, and- were she to be so bold- would claim that she was pretty damn good at it.

"I still think it's a little too cold. It's, like, lukewarm."

She struggled to reign in her shaking hand's desire to drop her cup and strangle Enterprise instead.

She forced a put-upon smile. "It's supposed to be only warm. Would you rather burn your tongue?"

"I'd rather it still be warm by the time it goes down my throat."

I'm sure you'd like that, you sodding giraffe. Why is everything about her so Goddamn long?

Hood stretched her neck up. "Just think of this as practice for being a proper lady. If you ever need to visit with the Royal Navy, they'll appreciate the foreknowledge and decorum."

The carrier raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you the one who told me that you only did the whole 'proper lady' thing because it distracted you from-"

"Would you care for another cuppa, Enty?"

Enterprise frowned. "I know you're just dodging my question, but I do want more, yes."

Hood held the kettle- really just a pot with a lid full of hot water, but a lady has to be resourceful- away from her and smiled. "What's the magic word?"

"What are we, six?"

"Didn't you tell me a few minutes ago that you were launched in '36?"

"Yeah."

Hood's smile grew. "Then that means you are six!"

Enterprise's head slammed onto the table, and she groaned unintelligibly into her hands.

"Aww, is poor little Enty sad she hasn't gotten her lukewarm tea? Do you need some help? Do you need to burp? Here, mama Hood will help poor baby Enty."

Hood jumped up from the table and forced Enterprise to look up, only to scramble out of her chair as the crippled battlecruiser closed in on her.

"You stay the fuck away from me, you crazy Brit!"

"Let mama Hood love you, darling!"

Their yelling had attracted the attention of most of the canteen by now, with sailors and girls alike beginning to holler and cheer in support.

"Run, Enty, run!"

"Catch her, English lady!"

Enterprise had resorted to running around the table that they had been sitting at while Hood used the table as a crutch for her bad leg and gave chase at an incredible pace.

With them circling the table a near dozen times, Hood broke the cycle by pushing herself over the table and sliding across it. Landing in front of Enterprise, the carrier didn't have enough time to slow down, tripping over Hood and toppling over heel overhead. Twisted up in a pile of limbs and clothing, the mess hall's main door was thrown open. Hood continued to attempt to wrestle Enterprise into her grip until she noticed that the previously loud mess hall had become dead silent. She slowly raised her head and saw two Admirals standing in front of her. She noted, to her immediate dismay, that one of them was Bill.

He glanced over to the other Admiral beside him. "Good luck, Jack."

With that, Bill turned around and lazily waved a hand behind him, gesturing for someone to follow. Enterprise immediately rolled herself out of Hood's grip and followed hastily after the older admiral. She spared Hood an apologetic glance over her shoulder before slipping through the door.

Hood herself scrambled to her feet after realizing that she was now alone on the floor. She made to press down her dress, only to stop her hand halfway.

Right. Not wearing my dress currently.

She awkwardly transitioned the movement into placing her hand on her hip as she looked at the Admiral.

Oh, it's the man who was drunk on the bench.

In stark contrast to how he looked earlier, his uniform was starched and freshly pressed. The junior officer's uniform he had been wearing earlier was swapped out for that of an Admiral; stars, stripes, and all.

Hood held back a snort. Heh, more stars and stripes than Enterprise's knickers.

"Is something funny?"

Hood snapped back to the mess hall and looked back at the admiral's face. It was freshly shaven, and the brim of his cap was low over his eyes, making his face seem more aggressive than he meant.

No, wait, he's actually upset.

"Uh, no, sir." Hood stumbled.

His eyes, far sharper than they had appeared earlier that day, bore into her. "Are you Ms. Hood?"

Still flat-footed, Hood raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"You're my new secretary." He pulled a piece of folded paper and held it out to her. "This is the list of individuals you need to gather. I expect them to assemble on the PT field near the command building at fourteen-hundred."

Hood took the folded paper from him- Jack, if I heard Bill correctly- and blinked when he immediately turned around and walked out the door that Bill and Enterprise had walked out of earlier. The mess hall slowly churned back to life as Hood stood gobsmacked in the middle.

"What just happened?"

"I'm guessing that was your first time meeting Lieutenant Commander, er, Admiral Bell."

Hood turned around. "Oh, hello, Pennsylvania."

She lazily waved from the table she was sitting at. "Hey, Hood."

The smaller woman beside her, Arizona, she mentally corrected, coughed lightly before speaking. "Hello again."

Hood walked over to the table that they were sitting at. "Hello again to you, too, Arizona. What are you both up to?"

"We were just grabbing some late lunch after spending time at the beach this morning. If we'd noticed you and Enterprise walk in, we would've invited you guys over." Pennsylvania replied.

Hood was taken aback. "That's awfully nice of you, Pennsylvania."

"Just call me Penn. Everyone does." She shrugged. "And it's all good. You kicked Tenn's ass this morning after she said some choice words about my sister, so you're alright in my book."

"Well. Just know that it's very appreciated. Thank you, Penn."

Pennsylvania waved her hand dismissively. "I already said it's all good, sheesh. Anyway, what'd the Admiral give ya?"

"According to him, it's a list of names that I need to gather in a half-hour." Hood held up the slip of paper that Admiral Bell had given her and held a corner. She snapped it open by giving it a quick flick of her wrist.

I have absolutely no idea who these people are.

"Is there something distressing in the paper?"

Hood shook her head. "Thank you for asking, Arizona, but no. I just have no idea who these people are that the admiral is expecting me to find."

Pennsylvania raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? Hand it here; I'll see if I can help."

Hood handed off the paper to Pennsylvania and rested her hand on the table. Pennsylvania skimmed through the shortlist and said, "I know all the girls on this list. Luckily for you, I also know where they'll probably be right around now." She stood up. "Come on. We can get them together. I'm on the list, too, so we need to get to the same spot anyway."

Hood shook her head. "You do far too much for someone you've only known for a handful of minutes."

Pennsylvania scowled as she helped Arizona onto the wheelchair beside them. "I already said it's fine. You got to know when you can rely on people to help get things done sometimes, capisce? If you only rely on yourself as a commanding officer, then you're going to flounder. You got to know when to command, girl."

Hood threw her hand up as she followed next to Pennsylvania and Arizona. "Why do all you Americans have such strangely good advice? First Enterprise and now you, too."

Pennsylvania laughed. "Believe me; we usually don't. I'm mostly just parroting something from a story I heard from Mrs. Bell. I'm sure whatever Enterprise told you was something Mrs. Bell told her at some point, too."

"I assume Mrs. Bell is the Admiral's wife?" Hood asked.

"She was, yeah. She lived on base and would spend a lot of her time with the girls. She and Jack didn't have any kids of their own, so she would always spoil us whenever she had time. The destroyers used to call her mom sometimes."

Hood snorted before asking, "she was?"

Pennsylvania's face dropped. "She got sick a bit less than a year ago. Polio, I think."

"That's horrible."

"Yeah… The destroyers were devastated. We all were, honestly. As much as we knew her, though, we never really saw her husband, the admiral you just saw. He tended to keep his distance from us. Not that he didn't like us or anything. I just don't think he really cared."

Hood huffed. "It certainly seems that way. I mean, really, he didn't even give me a passing glance. Just said, 'take this paper, tah-tah.' He may as well have called me chopped liver for all he seemed to care."

Arizona cut in. "It is pretty strange. Diana always used to talk about how attentive her husband was with her. Maybe he's just not feeling well today."

She hummed. "I did find him passed out on a bench this morning. Maybe he'll be more agreeable later today or tomorrow."

Pennsylvania laughed and shook her head. "I haven't seen much of Mrs. Bell's husband, either, but so far I'm not impressed. Here, the other girls will be in these dorms. They don't like us wandering around too much."

Hood shot Pennsylvania a questioning look, and she clarified, "we used to have a bit more freedom about the base until a sailor was caught about to, uh... have fun with Laffey." She spat on the ground before opening the door to the dorms. "Of course, the sailor was discharged, but not without Command blaming us for 'being too provocative for the men.' What a joke. Laffey looks like a little girl, for God's sake."

Having… fun? With one of the girls? I know some of the other girls in the Royal Navy were not terribly quiet about their escapades, but this is not okay.

"What happened to Laffey?"

"She's fine, we think. She was never very attentive in the first place, so who knows?"

Note to self, check-in with Laffey once I have a chance.

Hood was about to follow inside the dormitory alongside them until Pennsylvania held a hand out. "It's alright. You can wait out here while I get the girls from the list. It'll be faster if I just get everyone instead of everyone shuffling around wondering who the new girl is."

She nodded, and Pennsylvania left her alone outside the front door to the dormitory. Finally, alone with herself since she got to Pearl, Hood retreated into herself as she tried to gather her thoughts.

Alright, so maybe the streets aren't quite paved with gold in America, but it's certainly better than dealing with Sir Pound. Though Admiral Bell is undoubtedly doing his best to catch up, and not having Electra around is certainly a minus. I wonder what she's up to, anyway. She told me she was off to the Java Sea. I'm confident she'll do a grand job of escorting whatever capital ship she's tasked with. I wonder how the Denmark Strait would've gone if I had Electra in escort. Maybe more than three of my crew would've survived…

Hood lightly slapped her cheek and clenched her remaining eye shut.

Pull yourself together. You might've lost your hull, but you're still the Mighty Hood, dammit. Act like it. Ugh, I thought I was past thinking like this. What would Electra think?

She shook her head, took a deep breath, and counted to ten. She got to eight when the door to the dormitory opened and Pennsylvania, pushing Arizona in her wheelchair, came out trailing a handful of other girls.

"Is that everyone from the list?" Hood asked.

Pennsylvania huffed as she tried to maneuver around the destroyers surrounding her and Arizona. "Yeah, this should be all of them. We can head down to the PT field now."

Hood smiled. "Excellent. Let's go with due haste. If we aren't early then-"

"Then we're late, yeah, yeah." Pennsylvania finished. "It was one of Mrs. Bell's favorite quotes."

"You all seem to really enjoy quoting that woman."

"She was a quotable woman. If I'm honest, she's one of the few people that routinely talked with us that we can all agree just wanted what was best for us. So, ya know, she's one of the only people we can quote."

"...Laffey misses Mrs. Bell."

Hood looked down and to her right to see a young girl with a pink jacket.

I assume this would be Laffey that Pennsylvania was talking about earlier.

"Oh, hello, darling. Are you Laffey, by chance?"

"I am Laffey."

Blunt. Maybe I can give her a pat on the head or a hug. I remember Electra enjoying those.

Hood painted on her best smile and leaned down while they walked. "Well, aren't you just the most darling little thing."

She reached out her hand to pat Laffey on the head, but the little destroyer flinched and took a step away from her. Hood blinked before coughing awkwardly into her hand and straightening her back.

"So, Pennsylvania, where is the PT field we're supposed to be meeting at."

The taller woman nudged her chin forward to the empty field nearby. "Just over there. We're actually more or less at it."

Hood pulled out her pocket watch to check the time.

5:55. Right. Still broken. I really should invest in one of those wristwatches.

She sighed. A cheap wristwatch.

"Penn, do you happen to know the time?"

Pennsylvania hummed. "It's 1350."

"How did you know off the top of your head?"

"The big clock on my hull still works fine over there." She pointed across the Base toward the harbor and to one of the still floating large ships among the smaller vessels that zipped around it.

Hood smiled. "Your hull looks beautiful. How big?"

Pennsylvania puffed out her chest. "Thirty-two thousand long tons loaded and fourteen inch big guns. How 'bout you? Where is your hull, anyway?"

Hood's smile turned smug. "Forty-seven long tons and fifteen inch main guns. And, uh, I misplaced it."

"You misplaced it?"

"I'm sure I'll find it at some point. Now get with the other girls while I wait for the Admiral."

Pennsylvania raised her hands in mock surrender and went to talk with some of the other girls alongside Arizona.

"You misplaced it?"

"Bloody fu- Admiral bell. How long have you been there?"

How did he sneak up on me!

"About five minutes. I appreciate being fifteen minutes early to an appointment. I assume this is everyone on the list?"

Hood adjusted her Union Jack capelet. "It's everyone on the list, yes. Although I do have some questions as to why."

Admiral Bell turned away from her and faced the chatting girls. "You need not know why, only do. You're not an officer. You're a secretary."

I've traded one flavor of discrimination for another. Hurray. At least I'm a person now?

The Admiral walked forward away from her and toward the other girls. Once he was six paces away, he loudly cleared his throat. Only a few noticed, but slowly the chatter died down as he patiently waited for them to be silent with his hands behind his back. Only when they were completely silent and facing him did he speak.

"Good afternoon. I am Rear Admiral Jack Bell, and from here on out, I am your commanding officer. Now, line up. Parade rest."

The girls awkwardly shifted around each other for a moment before forming a loose line in front of the Admiral and placing their hands behind their backs.

"You." The Admiral pointed at a young, red-haired girl. "Did I say a line or a Roman orgy? Because this is not a fucking line."

The girl was obviously struggling not to laugh. "They're not mutually exclusi-"

The Admiral walked over and loomed over her. "Did I say a line or not, you fucking bimbo."

"You said a line!"

"I said a line, what?"

"You said a line, sir!"

"What's my next line going to be?"

"I don't know, sir!"

"Why don't you fucking know?"

"I don't know because I'm a bimbo, sir!"

"That's fucking right. What's your name?"

"San Diego, sir!"

"I knew a guy from San Diego. He was a fucking idiot. Only gamblers and degenerates come from San Diego. You a gambler, Sandy?"

"No, sir!"

"You a degenerate gambler?"

"No, sir!"

"Then you're just a degenerate."

"Yes, sir! I mean-"

"What's your rate, Sandy?"

"I, uh, don't know what a rate is, sir."

"Well looks like I can write off two for two on idiots from San Diego, now can't I, Sandy?"

"None of us have a rate, sir." a voice from the left cut in.

The Admiral immediately stood away from San Diego. "Who said that? Who the fuck said that?"

A tall woman with hair as red as San Diego's and bandages covering her left eye with left arm bound up in a sling stepped forward. "I did, sir."

The Admiral said nothing as he took three measured steps to stand in front of her. "Jesus Christ almighty- how fucking tall are you?"

"I'm six-foot five, sir."

The Admiral let out a low whistle. "I didn't know they stacked pig-iron that high."

"Excuse m-"

"Are you a pig, girly?"

The tall woman's mouth opened and closed repeatedly but no words came out.

"You a piggy girl? You like to oink and play in the mud?"

"O-of course not, sir!"

"Of course not. Of course not! You trying to make it seem more obvious, you sheet-metal bathtub? What's your name, piggy?"

"M-maryland, sir."

"What's your rate, Maryland?"

"I don't have one, sir."

"Well, congratu-fucking-lations, Piggy, it's your lucky day. You now hold the prestige rate of seaman first class."

"Oh- oh, thank you, sir!"

"You're a ship; you ever been full of seamen, Piggy?"

Maryland's face went as red as her hair as she stammered and desperately tried to form a response. The Admiral moved on to his next victim.

That last one made even me uncomfortable.

He stood in front of Laffey. Laffey looked up at him impassively with glazed-over eyes. The Admiral didn't say anything. The entire PT field had become silent. Without warning, the Admiral turned and walked back to where Hood had been watching. She could hear his teeth grinding against each other as he worked his jaw.

"I thought you said you gathered everyone on the list, Ms. Hood." He growled out.

Hood held her ground. She was used to dealing with this sort of behavior. "I brought each and every girl that you had assigned me to fetch, sir."

He threw his hand toward Laffey, and stage whispered. "That is a child!"

Hood made sure to speak softly and slowly. "All destroyers look very young, sir."

The Admiral looked ready to continue arguing, but he shut his mouth and ground his teeth together. He took a step back from Hood and reached into this pocket. He pulled out a dark-brown leather wallet and fished out a dollar bill. He held it out to her.

What?

She gingerly took the dollar bill from him, and he shoved his wallet back into his inner jacket pocket. He strode over to where the destroyers were lined up. He gestured for all four of them to walk forward.

He looked to Laffey first. Unlike when he was chewing out San Diego and Maryland, however, his voice was soft and clear. "What's your name?"

"I am Laffey."

"It's nice to meet you, Laffey. You already heard, but I'm Jack. Do you know these other three?"

She nodded.

"Do you know their names?"

Again, she nodded.

Hood couldn't see the Admiral's face from where she was watching, so she walked up and stood beside him to his back left.

He turned to the girl beside Laffey. "What's your name?"

"I'm Benson! I'm also Laffey's older sister!"

She doesn't look any older.

"That's impressive. I served aboard a Benson class destroyer before."

"Really? Which one!"

"USS Lansdale for six months."

"Ohhh, didja like her?!"

He laughed softly. "She was an excellent ship." He turned to the last two destroyers. "What about you two? What're your names?"

What is he up to?

"My name is Downes! And the quiet girl next to me is my sister, Cassin. She doesn't like to talk much."

Cassin looked up at him. "Hi."

Hi to you, too, Cassin. And nice to meet you, Downes."

He looked conspiratorially between the four of them. "How do you all like ice cream?"

Benson nearly hopped in place. "Oh! Me! Me!"

He smiled warmly. "Luckily, the kind Ms. Hood here is willing to take you all to get ice cream."

Hood blinked. "I am?"

She looked down at the dollar in her hand. "I mean, yes, I am. Come along, girls, we can talk about what kind of ice cream you want on the way."

The destroyers nearly swarmed around Hood as she tried to lead them away towards wherever ice cream might be.

I really hope the mess hall has ice cream.

::

::

AN: / Our Commander has quite a ways to go before he treats these girls right. Flip-flopping between treating them like women and treating them like weapons, dear old Jack neither flipped nor flopped, and instead fell back on what his Drill Instructors used to do to new boots.

Poor Sandy and Maryland. At least the destroyers get ice cream.

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