Chapter 3
When they awoke the next morning, they both were very tired. Janet kept tossing and turning so Lee didn't get much sleep either. He noticed something was wrong as her as she was still very nervous. He's not sure if it's the overload of work or something else. But there is something definitely bothering her. If they weren't running late this morning he would have asked her but she ran out of the cabin as soon as she was dressed.
He found her at the computer entering the data from yesterday.
"I'm in trouble. This should have been completed last night. I hope Mr. Porter isn't too upset," she said nervously.
"Sweetheart, you fell asleep at the computer. Obviously you were too tired to finish. I'm going to talk to the admiral this morning about this. Maybe Mr. Porter could help out a little more."
"No, Lee, please don't," she pleaded. "I will catch up today since there is no dive scheduled. I will get all of my work done today. I promise."
"Sweetheart I don't care about the work. Please tell me what's going on. Something is not right. You're too nervous about this."
"I'll be fine. Please don't say anything."
"If you insist, I won't. But if I find you asleep at the computer tonight, I will go to the admiral."
"Lee, I need to tel..." before she could finish Mr. Porter came in to make sure she completed entering the data from yesterday's analysis.
"What were you going to say," Lee asked waiting at the door.
"Have a good day, see you at dinner," she told him hastily as he left the office for the control room.
"Very good, Janet," Mr. Porter said coming into the office. "You would have had a big problem if you told him about our deal. They sure drink a lot of coffee on this boat. I would hate to see anyone get sick," he bullied her as he handed her a cup of coffee, which she took and put on the desk having no intention of drinking it.
"Finish putting in the rest of the data. You will be able to do your regular work today as I've finished analyzing everything we've brought up," he told her as he took her hands and started rubbing the backs of them.
She wanted to grab her hands away from him but was too afraid of what he might do to the coffee.
((()))
Chip had given Janet some reports to type and Lee also had some that needed to be done. She doesn't know how she did it but everything was done by dinner. Lee and Janet even managed to have dinner together with Chip and Jamie.
Janet finished her dinner and got up to leave.
"Excuse me gentlemen. I have some things I need to take care of in the cabin."
"Need help?" Lee asked with a gleam in his eye.
"No thanks," she replied as she walked out the door.
She was going to take a shower and try to get some sleep but didn't want to tell Chip and Jamie that. She could tell Lee was hurt the she didn't want him to go back with her. But right now she didn't want to be around anyone.
"Lee, what's wrong with Janet. She seems extremely tired and nervous. Is she sleeping and eating?" Jamie asked with concern.
"No she isn't. She's not eating very much and sleeping not much either. I found her asleep at the computer the other night. She does seem very nervous but I don't know if there's a problem or just too much work. I'm going to have a talk with her before we go to sleep."
"If she needs something to sleep, I can put something in her coffee," Jamie offered.
"If you do that she'll be pissed for sure but if she continues to have a problem sleeping, I'll let you know."
As they left the wardroom, Jamie was shaking his head. Just what he needed another Crane with eating and sleeping problems.
Lee did his walk around the boat and went back to their cabin and found her sound asleep. He got ready for bed and climbed in the bunk with her. She would normally wake up when he came back from his walk but she didn't even know he was there.
No sleep problem tonight, Lee thought.
((()))
They woke up early enough so they could have breakfast before the bathyscaphe would go on a dive later that morning.
They met the admiral and Chip in the wardroom. Cookie was waiting for them so he could put the food on their plates.
"Mrs. Crane I made your favorite breakfast this morning, pancakes. You didn't eat much dinner last night so figured you might be hungry this morning," he said as he put three pancakes on her plate and some fruit.
"Thank you Cookie."
She didn't want to hurt Cookie's feelings about making the pancakes especially for her but could only eat two of them and the fruit. Chip took the third one and wolfed it down.
After they put their plates in the dirty dish container, Lee wanted to know where everyone would be so they could launch the bathyscaphe.
"Admiral I'll meet you in the missile room after Jamie checks you out."
"Okay Lee. I'll be there shortly."
"Chip, please go to the control room and relieve O'Brien. Check to make sure Seaview is in positionso we can launch the bathyscaphe."
"Yes Lee," he replied as he left for the control room.
"Janet, where are you going?" Lee asked. "I need to talk to you once we launch the bathyscaphe."
"I'll be in my office making sure I've entered all the data and catch up on some work."
"I'll see you later," he said giving her a kiss as they were the only left in there besides Cookie.
((()))
Janet went to her office hoping Mr. Porter wasn't there but no such luck. He was there checking on the data she had put in the day before. He wanted to make sure everything was done before he went on the dive this morning.
"The laboratory in Hawaii is very pleased with the information you've been entering," Mr. Porter said as he grabbed her hand and started rubbing the tops of them.
"Thank you."
She had all she could do to keep from pulling them away. But she was afraid he would do something to the admiral during the dive if she did.
Since they were going deeper in the trench the admiral and Mr. Porter went on the dive earlier than planned. Janet stayed in her office the whole time the bathyscaphe was on the dive. Mr. Porter had found some more data she needed to enter as he forgot to give it to her the other day.
((()))
Lee went back to the control room after they launched the bathyscaphe. He was standing at the plotting table tapping his pencil. Something was wrong with Janet. She was acting very strange but he couldn't figure out what it was.
"Chip does Janet seem alright to you?" Lee asked worriedly.
"She seems a little tense. Maybe she's just tired from being overworked. That guy Porter doesn't really do too much. Why can't he put the data in the computer after he analyzes it? He knows more about it than she does," Chip responded honestly.
"That's what I told her the other day, and she begged me not to say anything to the admiral. I found her asleep at the computer the other night. Last night was the first night she hasn't been up past midnight since they started analyzing that data from the dives."
"How about I check on her later today and she how she's doing. Maybe I can take over entering the data for the next couple of days. You can run the boat by yourself," Chip said grinning.
"You bet I can. You're in my way most of the time anyway," Lee told him laughing as the two of them returned to what they were doing at the plotting table.
((()))
The bathyscaphe took two hours to get down to four thousand feet. They would take more samples of ooze at this level and hoped to find some amphipods. They would spend about three hours down there before coming back up.
When they returned, the admiral was going to help Mr. Porter analyze what they found. He was very interested in the amphipods.
They would take the samples and check them for their chemistry and identification. Even with both of them doing the analysis it would still take several hours before they would have the data to Janet. It looked like it would be another long night.
Mr. Porter gave Janet the data to put into the computer at 2100 hours that night.
"I know it's late but this must be put in the computer tonight. Since this is the deepest we've gone they want the information right away so they can compare it with the data we've already sent them," he told her as he handed her the information.
He grabbed her hands started to rub them against his chest. He let them go so she could type in the data.
"Yes, sir," she responded and started typing.
As she was typing he started to massage the back of her neck and moved his hands down her back.
"Please stop, I'm having a hard time typing with you doing that," she told him nervously.
"Too bad, keep typing. I know your husband likes a late night cup of coffee," he hissed as he continued.
Finally she had enough. She pushed him away. She pushed him a little too hard and he fell against the corner of her desk about five feet away and put a huge gash in the back of his head. His head was bleeding profusely. There was blood on the desk and the floor.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to push you that hard, please don't hurt my husband," she said sobbing.
"You'll be sorry you did this," he said viciously as he grabbed the back of his head and found his hand covered in blood.
Chip was on his way to her office to see if he could help her out today and walked in just after she pushed Mr. Porter.
He saw the blood on the floor and desk. Grabbing the cabin mic he called sick bay.
"Sick Bay, Doc report to Janet's office immediately. We have a serious injury in here," Chip said urgently.
"Sick Bay, I'll be right there," Jamie replied quickly.
Clicking the mic again, he called the control room.
"Control Room."
"Yes, Chip what's wrong?" Lee asked alarmed at the tone in his voice.
"Lee, you better get to Janet's office right away. There's been an accident."
"On my way," he answered throwing the mic on the table and telling Sparks to take the conn. Lee was working a little later tonight and Mr. O'Brien wasn't due on duty until 2300 hours.
Jamie got to Janet's office and saw Mr. Porter with his head bleeding. After he looked it over he knew he would need quite a few stitches. Just as he was taking Mr. Porter to sick bay, Lee came in and was amazed at the amount of blood all over.
"How is he Jamie?" Lee asked seriously.
"He'll need a few stitches, but head wounds do bleed a lot so it's not as bad as it seems," Jamie replied as he walked away.
"What the hell happened in here," Lee asked Janet as he went over to her as she sat on the bunk. "Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to push him that hard. I couldn't take it anymore," she said sobbing. "Please don't let the admiral fire me."
"Sweetie, what are you talking about? Take what anymore," he asked worriedly putting his arm around her.
As she was going to tell him what happened, the admiral and Mr. Rosen walked in and saw the blood all over.
"Lee, what's going on here," the admiral asked curtly.
"I don't know sir. That's what I'm trying to find out. All I know is Mr. Porter has a gash in his head and is in sick bay."
"Let's go to my office," the admiral said tersely.
"Admiral, I'm going to go to sick bay and see how Don is doing," Mr. Rosen said angrily. "I'll check in with you later."
"Chip could you please get someone to clean up in here," Lee asked. "And then go to the control room, I left Sparks in charge. I'll fill you in later."
"Yes, Lee. No problem." He called maintenance to come and clean up the office and left for the control room.
The admiral, Lee and Janet walked to his office. She could tell he was not happy. She was so scared he would fire her for pushing Mr. Porter. The admiral could tell Janet was very upset as she was shaking.
They sat down in the chairs in the front of the admiral's desk. He opened the bottom drawer of his desk a pull out a bottle of brandy and a glass.
"Here drink this," he told her as he handed her the brandy.
"No sir, I don't want it," she said softly.
"Janet, that wasn't a request, it was an order."
"Yes sir," she replied and drank it down in one gulp.
Lee was surprised she not only drank it but did it in one gulp. She had to admit it did calm her down a little and it sure got warm in the admiral's office all of a sudden.
"Now, please tell us what happened in your office," the admiral said calmly.
"Mr. Porter was massaging my back. He told me if I didn't let him do it, he would do something to Lee's coffee."
"Damn, why didn't you say something," Lee asked her angrily as he ran his hand through his hair. "We could have stopped him."
"Lee, there's more," she said quietly. "Ever since he came aboard he's been touching and harassing me. If I didn't let him do it, he threatened to hurt more people. He was responsible for the admiral's accident in the bathyscaphe. He caused his air valve to malfunction. He also said he would do something to the boat's coffee to make everyone sick."
"I'm going to kill him," Lee threatened and started to get up.
"Lee, sit down," the admiral commanded. "I will get to the bottom of this. Do you have any proof that he did any of those things?"
"No sir. It will be my word against his," she said sadly. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to push him that hard to hurt him. I just wanted to get him away from me. Please don't fire me," she pleaded.
"Honey, I'm not going to fire you. I'm sorry you had to put up with what he did," the admiral said sympathetically. "I need to know where else he touched you."
"Just my arms and back, he would hold my hands and rub them. He's being doing it since he got on board. He would also rub my shoulders and arms," she told him sobbing.
"Okay, I'm going to check on him in sick bay. I don't know if he will tell me the truth but until we get back to Pearl, I'm going to confine him to his cabin. Lee, take Janet back to your cabin and stay there. I will let you know what I find out."
"But admiral, please I need to..." Lee started to say.
"Lee, don't make this any harder on you or Janet," the admiral stated firmly. "I don't want you to do something you will regret later."
"Yes sir."
They got up and left the admiral's cabin and went to theirs.
((()))
"Sweetheart, I'm sorry. I had no idea what was going on. I could see you were nervous but I thought it was because of all the work you needed to do. I should have asked you what was happening."
"Lee I wanted to tell you but I was afraid he would hurt you or someone else on the boat."
"I'm sorry you had to endure what he did to you. But if you ever have a problem with anyone on this boat whether it be a crew member or civilian you must tell me immediately no matter what they threaten to do," he said as he gathered her in his arms.
"'Yes, Lee," she replied putting her head on his chest relieved it was over. She couldn't see the guilt he had in his eyes for letting this happen to her.
There was a knock on the door. Chip was off duty and wanted to know what took place in Janet's office.
"What happened in there? I don't think I've every seen that much blood from a gash in the head."
"Janet pushed him away from her. He'd been touching her since he came aboard. He threatened to hurt me and members of the crew if she didn't let him. He tampered with the air valve in the admiral's compartment to prove he meant business."
"I'm glad I went up to check on her. Who knows what he would've done. You really shoved him hard."
"Thanks Chip, for checking on me. I had no idea what he was going to do next," she said tears starting to run down her cheeks again. "I really didn't mean to push him that hard. I just wanted him to get away from me."
"Man if I ever get my hands on him, he'll be very sorry."
"I'm right behind you," Chip stated.