A/N:Thank you for all the reviews. I hope you will continue to read and review.
Sig sat in vigil at the side of the bed, watching the steady rise and fall of Samatha's chest. Her color was coming back to her cheeks but as it returned so did large purple bruises under her eyes and small red pinpricks around her cheeks. Edgar had called the clinic in Dutch, described Samantha's symptoms and was told that she'd probably suffered some sort of asphyxiation. The red dots were petechia, burst capillaries caused by a lack of oxygen. They were told to let her rest and that if she isn't showing signs of breathing difficulties her body would probably repair itself given time. Edgar relayed the information to Sig.
"Why would she stay under if she was out of air?" asked Sig.
"Because she felt pressured to get the job done" replied Edgar.
"God, I feel like an ass. I never should have ordered her to go" said Sig.
"Yeah, that was kind of a douche thing to do" said Edgar.
Sig gave him a look that clearly stated the comment was unnecessary.
"So what do you want us to do now?" asked Edgar.
"Finish the string" said Sig.
Edgar turned around and started to walk out the door. Turning around he saw that Sig hadn't moved.
"Are you coming? Or is the boat going to drive itself?"asked Edgar.
"We should have someone sit with her?" said Sig.
"Is that someone you?" said Edgar.
"No, send Junior in here. We aren't baiting these pots just picking them up. He won't be missed too much on deck" said Sig.
"That's fine, we only have 5 pots left. It shouldn't take use too long" said Edgar.
"Yeah, lets go and finish this string" said Sig.
Sig didn't leave until Jake took his place next to Samantha on the bed.
"Ok Junior, if anything changes call me. Don't leave her side" said Sig.
"Roger" said Jake.
Jake sat next to Samantha idly playing with the frayed edge of one of the blankets. He wondered why Sig didn't have a TV in his room, that would have made babysitting a little less boring. His head started to nod slightly and eventually his eyes closed completely and he slumped over landing squarely on Samantha's shoulder. This was enough to wake her from her slumber.
"Jake, you're smushing me" murmured Samantha.
"Antha, oh my God you're awake" said Jake.
"Just for a second, I'm still tired" said Samantha. "Do you want to get in so you can sleep too?"
"Sure, I'm suppose to be watching you but I assume if you wake up again you'll just wake me up" said Jake.
"Sounds like a plan" said Samantha.
She moved over slightly to make room for Jake in the bed. Once he was settled Samantha fell back into sleep.
Pulling pots a man down was tough, pulling pots when everyone on the deck was thinking about an injured member of the fishing family was impossible. No one was concentrating especially Sig. They were pulling 5 pots which should have taken a couple hours at the most, however it had been almost 3 hours and they still had 2 pots to go. Sig was driving the boat like a drunk guy trying to find his way out of a closet. Even Norman was a little off his game. All Edgar wanted to do was finish these last two pots and go inside. The next pot appeared on the bow and Sig announced it to the crew. Edgar threw the hook catching the line on his first try. Pulling up the pot it had 5 crab in it, they were quickly sorted and the pot was slowly stacked on the deck. One pot to go and Edgar couldn't be happier to get this string done. When the final pot was pulled up it contained 1 keeper, when everything was finished down on deck Edgar told the guys they could head in. Everyone dragged their feet getting inside.
"What is going on with all of you?" asked Edgar. "We just took forever to pull 5 pots, I would think you guys just want to stay out here enjoying the weather."
"Sorry Edgar" said Matt. "We're just worried about Antha."
"Then why don't we go inside and see her. She's probably still resting. She'll be fine, she just needs time to recuperate" said Edgar.
"Yeah, I got to make lunch" said Matt. "Do you think Antha will wake up to eat something?"
"I have no idea. Make her some soup of something" said Edgar.
Matt snickered to himself imagining serving the 11 year old can of noodle soup to Antha.
The moment the guys were off deck Sig set a course to their next set of pots and headed down to check on Antha. He met Edgar in the hallway and sent Nick up to keep an eye on the wheelhouse. Edgar and Sig walked into the stateroom and their jaws dropped as they saw Jake cuddled into bed with Antha.
"Jake, what the hell do you think you're doing?" yelled Sig.
"Oh, sorry. I was tired and Antha said I could climb in with her" said Jake.
"How exactly did she do that? You know just because she didn't say no when you climbed in does not mean she invited you in" said Edgar.
"No, she woke up for a minute" said Jake.
"Why didn't you come and get me?" barked Sig. "I told you to get me if anything changed and her waking up is that kind of change I'd like to be informed of."
The berating continued for a few more minutes before Samantha had heard enough.
"Can you keep it down, some of us are trying to recover from almost dying over here" she said.
"How are you feeling?" asked Sig after all but dragging Jake out of the bed.
"Everything hurts" replied Samantha.
Sig frowned and cast his eyes around the room looking for something that could make her feel better.
"And I'm thirsty and I need to go to the bathroom" added Samantha.
"I'll get you water and some meds" said Edgar.
"Can you get up?" asked Sig.
"Well I don't think so" said Samantha.
"Why? What's hurt?" asked Sig his voice panicking.
"Nothing. But you are sitting on the blankets so I can't get out of bed" said Samantha.
"Right" said Sig.
He stood up and pulled the blankets off of Samantha's still prone body. Holding out his hand he helped her sit up and then stand up. She was slightly shaky on her feet but Sig steadied her by holding her around the waist and led her into the bathroom. He left her just as she'd left him the day before.
"Do you need any help?" asked Sig.
"No, I think I'll be fine" said Samantha.
"Ok, call me if you need me. I'll be right out here" said Sig closing the door.
Samantha finished going to the bathroom and then looked at herself in the mirror. She had huge purple bruises under her eyes, looking away she washed her face and pulled her fingers through her hair in an attempt to detangle it. Giving up on her hair she left it down and opened the door. Sig was waiting right outside the door and she watched him appraise her critically for moment.
"Your hair looks really pretty when it's down" commented Sig.
"Thanks" said Samantha.
Sig moved Samantha back to the bed and sat her down. Samantha sat indian style on Sig's bed with him sitting next to her.
"Why did you stay down so long?" asked Sig.
Edgar had just entered the room and handed Samantha her bottle of water and a handful of pills.
"I was almost done" said Samantha.
"When did you run out of air?" asked Sig.
"On the swim back to the boat" answered Samantha.
"You could have died" said Sig simply.
"I didn't want to have to go back down again" said Samantha.
"What do you mean? We wouldn't have made you go back down" said Sig.
"You are such a liar. You threatened me in order to make me dive in the first place. I have no doubt that if I hadn't gotten the rope off on that dive I would have been sent back down. I was already freezing and I didn't want to go back in the water once I got out" said Samantha.
"I wouldn't have made you go back in" said Sig.
"You would have" said Samantha.
"I wouldn't have" said Sig.
"Whatever. It's over now" said Samantha. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure" said Sig.
"Why did you agree to do this?" asked Samantha.
"Do what?" asked Sig.
"Agree to have a fan on your boat" said Samantha.
"Funny story" said Sig.
"He was drunk at a Discovery event and agreed to it. He didn't even remember" said Edgar.
"Thank you" said Sig with a glare at Edgar.
"What event?" asked Samantha.
"It was the preview of the season, Discovery shows us the first show and hosts a little party" explained Sig.
"Really" said Samantha in disbelief.
"What?" said Sig defensively.
"It's just I didn't really imagine you being so drunk that you would agree to let a fan on your boat without asking a million questions about legality and liability. Are you sure you even agreed to this?" asked Samantha leadingly.
Sig looked confused for a moment then he leveled an angry gaze at Samantha.
"What are you talking about?" he asked angrily.
"I think that John tricked you into taking me on the boat" said Samantha.
"Why would you think that?" asked Sig.
"Because if you don't remember being violently opposed to this idea from the first suggestion then I don't believe you were asked at all" said Samantha.
"Who do you think you are? You're a fan, you see only what is shown on TV, don't think that you know who I am" said Sig.
Samantha debated for a moment about revealing herself, but decided if she was going to save any future fans from themselves and Sig from being sued she was going to have to.
"I think I know you better than most" said Samantha.
"Oh really? How so?" asked Sig.
"Because I'm not just a fan" said Samantha.
"What are you talking about" said Sig.
"Do you really think that Discovery would hold a fan contest and you wouldn't be aware of it? That you wouldn't have been given some sort of input or the choice of the fan?" asked Samantha.
Sig was silent.
"What else did I do on my tape?" asked Samantha. "Did I explain about why I wanted to be on the boat?"
"You were just doing aerobics, there was no interview or anything" said Sig.
"Doesn't that seem weird to you?" asked Samantha.
"It does now" said Sig.
"Antha, please save us the Sherlock Holmes act and tell us what's going on" said Edgar.
"I'm not a fan, I work for Discovery. In fact you've all met me a few times at various events, including the one where you allegedly drunkenly agreed to hosting this fan contest" said Samantha.
"So you're a plant" said Sig angrily.
"No, I'm the test subject. I'm sure John wanted to make sure that this idea would work before he subjected a real fan to working on a crab boat. He picked me because I'm small, allegedly weak, a woman and the person who you'd probably be most opposed to. Then later when the real fan wins, it will probably be a guy and you won't be so opposed to the real fan. But what he doesn't realize is that I trained for this little adventure and I've seen every single minute of tape that has come off this boat for the last 2 years. I probably know this boat and you guys better than anyone outside of the actual camera guys. No fan would know as much as I do and they would be completely unprepared to come out here" said Samantha.
"I've never met anyone named Antha" said Edgar.
"No, but you've probably met a Samantha, with brown hair and glasses" said Samantha.
Edgar and Sig both stared hard at Samantha examining her features and looking for similarities between the girl sitting before them and the one they've met before.
"I'm going to fucking kill him" said Sig while rushing out the door.
"It's the hair" said Edgar. "I would never had pictured you with red hair."
"Yeah, that was part of the requirements set forth by John. I had to change my hair, I had to be unrecognizable to all of you. On the upside I got lasik so I won't need glasses anymore" said Samantha.
"I should check on Sig" said Edgar.
"Wait, I want to come too" said Samantha.
Sig was already on the phone when Edgar and Samantha made it to the wheelhouse. Although clearly no one had picked up yet because Sig was ranting and raving to himself. Samantha slipped forward and took a seat in the port side chair while Edgar moved to sit on the bench seat behind Sig.
"I want to talk to John, now" said Sig.
Sig put the phone on speaker and set the phone on the desk.
"Sig, it's John. How's everything going?" said John.
"John, I almost killed the fan today" said Sig.
"What happened?" asked John.
"She did a dive for us and ran out of air. She surfaced by herself but she barely made it" said Sig. "I think you may have over exaggerated her diving skills."
"Is she ok?" asked John his voice faintly concerned.
"She will be. But I just wanted to tell you what happened in case she decides to sue" said Sig.
"She won't sue. She can't, she has a contract" said John dismissively.
This was just the opening Sig needed.
"A contract? Does she work for you?" asked Sig.
"Did she tell you that?" asked John, his voice revealing his anger.
"I never agreed to this stupid contest did I?" said Sig angrily.
"Of course you did" said John.
"No I didn't" said Sig angrily.
"You did at that party, why would you bring this up now?" asked John.
"Perhaps I've just had my memory jogged. In fact I must say that I've had a very enlightening day" said Sig.
"Tell Samantha she's fired. She violated the terms of our contract" said John haughtily.
"What are you talking about?" asked Sig.
"She'll know what it's about" said John. "Ask her."
John abruptly hung up the phone. Sig turned around to ask Samantha what was going on but she was gone.