***Had an awesome time seeing Captain Sig and the Hillstrands last night in Pittsburgh. I got crazy inspired, too, so I wrote a lot this morning. Hope you enjoy!***

Edgar flipped up his welder's mask and listened carefully to the laughter drifting down the docks. He scanned carefully until he saw the source, the familiar blonde standing by the Cornelia watching Jake Harris throw cod at his older brother. She laughed again as Josh yelled something he couldn't understand from the deck of the Northwestern and sent the fish back at Jake, who couldn't dodge in time and took a cod to the chest. The youngest Harris stumbled a few steps from the impact, turned, and chucked the fish at her. She squealed, barely caught it, held it out like it was oozing blood, and yelled at Jake. The brothers laughed, and Josh hopped the rail to take the fish from her. He chucked it onto the boat, wrapped his arms around her waist, and muttered something to her. Edgar looked away at that point. He didn't need to see anything else. In the last month, Kjiersten had found more of a family with those two than she had with her own blood. He swore under his breath, flipped his visor back down, and was just about to get back to fixing the dogs when he heard that familiar voice calling his name.

"Uncle Eddie?" He started when he realized how close she was and flipped his visor up to see that Kjiersten was now on the docks in front of the Northwestern. "Can I…?"

He stared at her for a second before grunting, "Get your ass on board." She grinned and chucked her bag over before hopping the rail herself.

"You need help?" He shrugged. "Uncle Eddie, please don't do this."

"Do what? I'm not doing anything you haven't done to me the past month."

"I was an idiot, I know," she sighed, leaning back against the rail. "I should have called you back. I tried to call you back so many times, but I could never go through with it. I never knew what to say. I was never really mad at you, you know."

"Could have fooled me."

"Look, I'm trying here," she snapped. They both glared each other down until he broke and nodded for her to go on. "I even understand why you helped dad in the first place. I think you were an idiot, but I get it now. And this whole time, you never gave up on me. I think Uncle Sig wrote me out of his will five different ways judging by his voicemails, but you didn't turn your back on me even though I was being a total bitch. I never wanted to hurt anyone, especially not you guys. I love you guys. You're my family. I just felt really betrayed, Uncle Eddie. My whole life, it's always been my dad and me. I told him everything, every single thing that went down in my life, and when I couldn't tell him, I went to you guys. To find out that you might have been working against me turned everything upside for me, and I needed to get it all right again. I didn't want to cut you out, and I didn't want to miss Christmas or New Years, but I just wasn't ready. And I wanted to call you, but I couldn't. I…it was…"

"Hey, hey," Edgar stoop up and pulled her into his arms as a few tears leaked out of her eyes, "it's okay. Don't cry. I know. I'm just upset because I was worried about you but couldn't even hear your voice. I get missing the holidays and staying with Josh and all that stuff. I just wanted to know you were alright. That's all. Don't worry about it."

She relaxed into him as he stroked her hair, glad to be back on the familiar, gentle rocking of the Northwestern with the comforting arms of her favorite uncle keeping her safe again. "Thank you."

"Like I could ever be mad at you, Tyke." She laughed. "I'm the easy one, though."

"Think Uncle Sig still wants me on the boat?" she asked as she pulled out of the hug.

"Of course he does. You're the only one in the next generation of Hansen's with any interest in this business. Without you, the legacy dies. If nothing else, he'll keep you around to have someone to pass the boat off to when we all kick the bucket."

"Wow," she rolled her eyes. "You have such a way with words." He grinned boyishly. "Where is everyone else?"

"I came up early to do some repairs since I didn't know if I'd have help or not. Sig and your dad will be up tomorrow. I sent Jake, Nick, and Matt shopping to get 'em out of my hair."

"So I have another day to write my apologies. Awesome," she nodded thoughtfully.

"Dana and Don are here. Dana really wants to talk to you, too. Norman's silent treatment wasn't exclusive to you."

"Yeah, she called me," Kjiersten nodded. "I really hoped he'd get his act together on that one."

"No such luck."

"Could we have more drama going into this season?" Kjiersten made a face and kicked her bag towards the door inside. Edgar shrugged.

"That's what makes this boat so great, Tyke! How else do we keep it interesting?"

She laughed as she grabbed her bag and headed inside. She heard Don and Dana up in the wheelhouse, so she made it a point to avoid the creaky spot on the floor as she passed the steps. She hesitated outside the door of her usual stateroom, ordered herself to stop being dramatic, opened the door, and shoved her bag in. When she turned around, Don was coming down, shaking his head. He saw her and shook his head again.

"I can never get sane cameramen. Never. I'm the producer. They should listen. Do they? No! Never! Chris was bad. This one?" he threw a hand upstairs. "No respect. Wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't right," he grumbled, grabbing his Red Bull off of the table. "That's the worst part. They always have to be fucking right." He muttered more under his breath, grabbed a camera bag off of the table, and headed out to start setting deck cams.

She laughed at her favorite producer and headed up into the wheelhouse, where Dana was busy adjusting the captain's camera in a new spot that Sig would spend the whole season trying to find. She stopped at the top of the stairs and leaned against the railing, watching as Dana simultaneously fought with the rigging and a stubborn piece of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail and wouldn't stay tucked behind her ear.

"Hey, pretty lady." Dana jumped and banged her head on radio at Kjiersten's voice.

"Why do you people always sneak up on me?" she whined, sinking back into Sig's chair. She turned in it, saw Kjiersten, and offered a tired smile. "I didn't think I'd see you, to hear Sig and Edgar talk."

"I didn't think I'd be here. Have you been talking to them a lot?"

Dana shrugged, rubbing her forehead. "More than I thought I would."

"Dad never called you."

"No."

Kjiersten nodded and bounced her fist gently against the railing. "That's probably my fault. He was more worried about me, and he can only deal with one crisis at a time. Everything else kind of falls to the side. He's always been that way."

"It's…" Dana waved a hand as she trailed off. "Well, he'll have to talk to me now, won't he? We're stuck together for the next two months. I just wish we could have talked sooner. I really wanted to clear things up between us."

"Yeah, he's not...Dad's never really been good with words. Things never get 'cleared up'," Kjiersten shrugged. "And, like I said, it's not that he was purposely ignoring you. He just couldn't think about anything else."

"Edgar told me you guys got in a pretty big fight."

"Epic proportions," Kjiersten confirmed. "This is the first time I've seen any of them in a month. Pretty much since our beautiful moment in the kitchen, actually. Which, by the way, I apologize for. I had other things going on, and the massive implications were just way too much for me to handle. I was way out of line."

"For running out?" Dana smirked. "Please. Anyone would have done that. Seeing your dad with someone when he's been single for, what, 20 years? That has to be pretty intense."

"Like you wouldn't believe," Kjiersten agreed. "Especially when I don't even like you."

"Yeah, well," Dana laughed, "the feeling's mutual. But I respect you, and if you have a huge problem with this, I don't want to keep you and your dad apart."

"Nah," she shook her head, "don't worry about that. You're good for him, and, even though you're a dumbass, I respect you, too."

"Well, thank you. For the record, you're a cocky bitch."

Kjiersten grinned. "It's good to have you back."