Just Need a Little Elbow Room

Snow fell lightly from the sky in Dutch Harbor as the crab fleet made their way back home. The captains and crews had finished their final offloads and were more than ready to head back into port and hit up the local bar for some good times and fish stories with the other captains and crews of the fleet.

The Elbow Room staff was already overworked as they moved in-between the rowdy crabbers, filling up glasses with beer and other alcoholic beverages. Once in awhile the bell above the bar would clang loudly and a cheer would go up around the room as the captains bought drinks for the whole crowd.

In a far back corner of the Elbow Room sat two women, looking slightly overwhelmed as they watched the antics of the drunken crabbers.

"Can you believe we survived this?" exclaimed Sasha, beaming happily. She glanced over to where the Cornelia Marie crew was laughing it up with some of the Northwestern's crew.

Amber smirked slightly at her friend when she saw a rather attractive blonde deckhand turn and give her a wave.

"Well somebody had a good time," she teased Sasha.

Sasha's grin went from one ear to the other as she gave her friend a sheepish look, "Yeah…what can I say? He's pretty amazing."

Amber was happy for her friend but inside she felt absolutely dreadful. She saw Sig talking with Phil and her heart fell. She looked away quickly, hoping that her friend hadn't noticed the sadness in her eyes.

Sasha frowned and gave Amber a very concerned look, "What's wrong?"

Amber glanced at Sasha and sighed. She should have known her friend would have picked up on her sadness right away.

"Um, well let's just say that things don't always work out," she murmured quietly.

Before Sasha could ask what she meant by that, the doors to the Elbow Room swung open and an even louder roar of excitement drowned out their voices as the Time Bandit and Wizard crews joined in on the party.

Two young women quickly made their way to the back of the Elbow Room, trying to escape the throng of crabbers.

"Hey look at that!" exclaimed Sasha, "There's two more nurses right there!"

Amber craned her neck to see what Sasha was all excited about. Sure enough there were two rather overwhelmed looking nurses heading over in their direction. They saw Amber and Sasha and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness!" exclaimed one of the girls with auburn hair and bright green eyes, "I thought we were gonna be stuck with these guys all night!"

The other girl sneered, "You'd like that from what I've heard," she joked as she brushed a stray strand of dark brown hair behind her ear.

The girl with green eyes nudged her playfully as she turned back to Amber and Sasha, "Hi, I'm Jenny. I was the nurse on the Wizard and this is Maggie. She was on the Time Bandit."

Amber and Sasha moved over to make room for the two nurses to sit down at their table.

"Good to meet you! I'm Sasha and I was on the Cornelia Marie. This is Amber and she's with the Northwestern."

The nurses shook hands and settled down at the table, glancing back at the crabbers and rolling their eyes in exasperation.

"They're all a bunch of boys," muttered Jenny, smiling slightly.

"Yeah but you can't help but love them!" replied Maggie as she glanced over at Andy Hillstrand and smiled.

"No, no you can't," said Sasha, glancing over at Dave Millman for the hundredth time.

Jenny smirked, "Yeah they're alright," she said nonchalantly as she looked over at deckhand Crosby LeVeen.

Amber stayed silent and Sasha nudged her, "What's with you Amber? Oh come on now don't tell me you didn't have the hots for at least one of those cuties there on the Northwestern!"

The nurses giggled like highschool girls and leaned forward to hear Amber better.

Amber wanted a hole to open up in the ground right there and then and swallow her whole. She glanced around at the happy faces of the other nurses who were obviously over-joyed and in love. A pang of sadness hit Amber as she realized how desperately she wished she could share in their excitement.

"Um, well it's like I said Sasha…sometimes things don't work out," she said quietly.

"Oh dear," said Jenny as she put a hand on Amber's shoulder, "One of them broke your heart?"

Amber smiled sadly, "Yeah…something like that."

"Who?" asked Maggie.

Amber glanced around at the three nurses before she looked over to the Northwestern crew. Her eyes scanned them all and stopped when she saw Sig. A collective gasp from all three nurses caused her to look away sharply.

"No way!" exclaimed Sasha as she gave her friend a startled look, "Sig Hansen!?"

"Wow! How in the world did you manage that?" asked Maggie with a grin, "He's quite the catch!"

Amber smiled slightly and looked down, "Yeah it was fun…but it didn't work out."

"What do you mean?" pressed Jenny, "What happened?"

Amber shot Sasha a sad look before she spoke, "Well…he yelled at me. And it's kind of a long story but I can't handle guys yelling at me. I know it sounds crazy…but it always starts with the yelling. Then there's the hitting, then it gets worse and worse. It always does."

Sasha nodded knowingly as she held her friend's hand. Amber pulled a letter out of her pocket with her other hand and held it for a moment. She gave the nurses a final glance before she stood up to leave.

"Where are you going?" asked Sasha, concern evident in her voice.

"I have to go do something before I leave," whispered Amber as a deep sadness overwhelmed her.

"What do you mean?" demanded Sasha as she began to panic a little, "You're coming back for Opelio season right?"

Amber shook her head sadly, "No…no I can't. This is it for me. It was nice meeting you girls."

Amber turned and went out the back door as quickly as she could just as she felt the tears begin to fall down her face…

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It was getting really late and the crews had begun to file out of the Elbow Room and retreat back to their boats to spend the night.

Sig Hansen sighed wearily as he climbed onto the Northwestern. Edgar was on deck cleaning up a few things before he went to bed.

"Hey," he said, greeting his older brother as he climbed onto the boat.

Sig met Edgar's eyes and that old feeling of anger welled up inside of him again. He shot Edgar a furious look as he remembered all the touching and hugs and little pranks Edgar had been playing on Amber. Edgar took a step back and blinked in surprise. He wasn't expecting Sig to act like this.

"Um, Sig? Is everything okay?" he asked hesitantly.

"Is everything okay?" seethed Sig as he took a step toward Edgar, "Is everything okay? You flirt with my woman and then have the nerve to ask me if everything is okay!?"

Edgar gave Sig a very confused look, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about!" roared Sig as he walked forward, "I saw you two out on the deck! I saw how you looked at her!"

"Damn it Sig calm down!" sputtered Edgar as he backed up until he reached the rail, "You're insane! I wasn't flirting with her, I was trying to cheer her up after you yelled at the poor girl!"

Sig's rage faltered for a moment and he stopped his advance. He studied Edgar's face for a moment and realized that his brother was telling him the truth.

"I wouldn't do that to you…you know that," said Edgar, sounding hurt by his brother's accusations.

Sig sighed and took a deep breath, running his hands through his thinning blonde hair. He glanced back at Edgar and felt a pang of guilt when he saw the fear and hurt in his younger brother's eyes.

"Yeah…yeah I know," he murmured, "I'm sorry."

Edgar relaxed slightly, "Yeah…don't mention it," he replied quietly, still slightly unnerved by his brother's explosive anger.

"Have you seen her?" asked Sig after a moment.

Edgar shook his head, "No last time I saw her she was talking to some of the other nurses at the Elbow Room but that was hours ago."

Sig nodded and turned to go back up into the wheelhouse. He shook his head and wondered what the hell was going on with him. He only yelled at his crew when he was really upset and now he was yelling at everyone for every little thing. He'd screamed at Matt on the way back because the poor guy slipped on the deck. No wonder Amber was so upset.

He sighed as he sat down in his captain's chair and closed his eyes for a brief moment. When he opened them he looked down to see a letter sitting on the console in front of him. He frowned as he picked it up and opened it.

Sig,

I can't do this anymore. I'm leaving so start looking for another nurse. I just can't handle being treated like that…not again. Don't try to find me because you won't. I'm not going home I'm going somewhere else. Somewhere I can be alone and try to figure things out again. So this is goodbye.

-Amber

Sig felt his heart drop as he read the letter. She was leaving because of him. She had been hurt like this before. He cursed himself as he sat the letter down and rubbed his tired eyes. She told him not to go looking for her, but everything in him said to try. Suddenly he wondered if she could still be in Dutch. Maybe she was still at the airport.

He jumped up out of his chair and ran back outside. Edgar looked up in surprise and tensed, prepared for Sig to unleash his wrath on him again.

"Edgar, watch the boat!" he shouted as he started to climb over the rail.

Edgar frowned and watched as his brother leapt onto the dock.

"Where are you going?" he shouted.

"Amber's gone…and I'm going to do anything it takes to find her again…"

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And the tension mounts! I'm going to start working on the sequel as soon as possible (meaning tonight or tomorrow morning). Please send a shout out to Emily!!! (BrokenHeartBiret) for her AMAZING ideas!!!

Things to look forward to in the sequel: Amber's best friend Sasha is on the hunt for her friend and the other nurses decide to help her out. A new sisterhood will form while Sig searches for Amber. Along the way he begins to realize how much he truly loves her and Amber finds out some unexpected and life-changing news that could either draw them back together or force them apart for good.

The title of the story will be: You Could Be Happy

Thanks as always for reviewing!!!