***Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone! I always love getting your feedback. It's been cold and rainy here which is normally prime writing conditions for me, but I've been fighting a bit of a cold and didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted. Still, I've made some serious progress with this and will probably start wrapping it up soon.***

Kjiersten's stomach flipped when Edgar pulled out that damn herring. He pushed it towards Jake and asked, "Junior?" conspiratorially. Jake held his hands up and backed away. Matt and Nick both offered glares that showed exactly what they thought of Edgar even considering that they take the fish. "No-orm!"

"No," Norman stated firmly. Edgar waved the fish in his older brother's face, and Kjiersten had to throw a hand over her mouth so she didn't laugh too obviously. Still, her father shot her a glare anyway. "Edgar. No."

"C'mon! You don't want the first pot to be shit, do ya?"

"Ed."

"Norm."

"No."

"Yes."

"Oh my lord," Kjiersten rolled her eyes and yanked the fish out of her uncle's hand. Before anyone could comment, she sank her teeth into the slimy fish, ripped the body away from her jaw, and gestured with the decapitated remains to her crewmates. After maybe 5 seconds, she spit the head overboard, and, waving the body, stated, "You're all a bunch of pussies, you know that?"

"Watch your mouth, Tyke," Edgar warned, but the proud grin on his face betrayed his true feelings. She tossed the fish body at him, which he caught expertly and tossed over the rail. She immediately took the water bottle Norman offered her and downed it, swishing and spitting occasionally to get the taste out.

"That looked disgusting," Dana commented as the crew prepared to dump their first official string. Kjiersten nodded as she spit the last of her water overboard.

"It was," she assured the older woman. Kjiersten grabbed the rail as the boat rocked, and she and Dana both swore under their breath. "How you holding up?"

"I'm fine. Don't start coddling me."

"I'm not coddling you. I'm coddling…" Kjiersten paused as Jake jogged by on the way to the bait station. "I'm coddling you-know-who in your you-know-what."

"The maturity level in your family overwhelms me sometimes," Dana rolled her eyes. "Get back to work, okay?" Kjiersten shot her a look and shook her head before joining her crew in dumping pots.

When Norman switched with Edgar to work the hydros a bit, Dana sidled up to him with her camera. "Any thoughts for the season?"

She really didn't know what to expect from him, and she certainly didn't expect the fairytale apology she'd dreamed up, but she did expect more than what she got. The old Norman, the Norman from the beginning of king season, appeared in full force. He shrugged without even looking at the camera.

"No thoughts?" He shook his head. "You're not gonna say a word to me, are you?" At that, the corner of his mouth flickered in what might have been a half-smile. "Well, I'm not going anywhere until you say something."

Norman raised his eyebrows at that but kept his attention focused on deck. Dana watched and waited for another 30 seconds before admitting defeat with a loud, "You're impossible!" that earned laughs from the crew. "Two can play that game, Norman Hansen," she muttered to herself as she filmed the rest of the on-deck activity.

Later, when they had gone inside for a brief break between test strings, Dana cut herself off from the group. She needed time to think. Think about how she could keep her secret, how she could tell a man that wouldn't say three words to her that she was having his child. So, while the rest of the crew laughed and joked over Matt's shepard's pie, she took her plate and slipped into the wet room to sit on the cold, slimy floor to sift through her thoughts.

She was so deep in concentration that she barely noticed anyone come in the room until Edgar slid down to sit next to her. As always, she jumped, which made him grin. "Didn't mean to startle ya."

"It's fine," she insisted. "Happens a lot around you people."

He grinned and let that comment slide. "So, why've you got yourself all cooped up in here?"

She opened her mouth to speak but stopped and thought for a moment first. "I just…needed to be alone, I guess."

"Cuz a' Norm?"

She chuckled at that. "Yeah, cuz of Norm."

"He can be an idiot sometimes, you know. Don't let it get to you. He'll come around."

"I don't understand him," she sighed, setting her plate down on the floor. Edgar winced, picked it up, and put it in his lap. "I don't want to be the clingy one night stand, but I know there was something there, Ed. It's like he doesn't trust me enough to try."

"That's not it," he assured her. "He trusts you. We all do; even Kjiersten does."

Dana smirked. "She's really coming around."

"She did a lot of thinking this off-season," he agreed. "And after spending a season with someone, you trust them. Norm trusts you with his life; he does. But things look different on land. Out here, when you could be gone like that," he snapped his fingers, "you're more willing to take that chance and go for what you really want. On land, all those other worries and insecurities creep in. Crabbers live two lives; the life on the boat, and the life on land. You're part of both of his lives, and you're getting tossed around because of it. He's confused, too; I can tell."

"I don't see why it's so different out here."

Edgar picked up the plate and shifted to face her better as he explained. "The Bering Sea is the last frontier. No police or anything, just a couple daredevils listening to the laws of one man. You have to trust each other with your lives, because there's no one else out here to save you in the end. There are people on this crab fleet I've never met before, but I'd trust them to take my nieces home on a dark night in a strange city over anyone else. Out here, things don't need to be written down or put on record. It is how it is, and everyone knows it."

She considered for a moment. "I guess I never thought of it that way."

"No, because you've still got 80 people to answer to. We don't. We answer to Sig. What he says goes, and we might bitch, because he makes some pretty stupid-ass calls, but the final say is his. This is a whole different world for us. So just give Norm some time. He'll figure this out."

"Better not take him too long," she mumbled as Edgar stood to go.

He paused and grunted, "What was that?"

"Huh?" she feigned innocence. "Nothing. Just thinking out loud. Thanks."

"Sure thing."

"Not for the talk. I meant for taking my plate in."

Edgar grinned and flipped her off before turning his back and leaving her, once again, to her thoughts.

Edgar smirked as Dana ran out of the wet room and barely made it to the bathroom in time to empty the contents of her stomach. Kjiersten squeezed her eyes shut and counted to 10 silently before continuing to put her gear on.

"Looks like a good old opillio winter finally got that girl's stomach churning!"

"Yeah," Kjiersten licked her lips as she fought with her glove. "I'm sure that's it."

"You got something on your mind?" Norman asked as he shoved her worn, frayed Mariners cap on her head. She made a face at the gesture he'd been doing ever since she was a little kid and readjusted the hat.

"Why would you think that?" she countered.

"You have been acting kinda weird whenever the topic of Dana comes up," Edgar pointed out.

"Yeah," Matt piped up. "You've been nice."

"Shut up, Bradley, or I'll rip your balls off with a wrench."

He held his hands up in the air defensively. "Okay, I take it back. You're the biggest bitch I've ever met."

"Seriously," she warned, fumbling on the rack behind her without taking her eyes off of him. After an awkward moment, her hand found what it was looking for, and she whipped the wrench in front of her.

"I'll just be outside!" Matt chirped, and he slunk out with Jake, never one to stick around when that girl had a wrench, close on his heels. Nick Mavar laughed and let them know just how wimpy they were as he followed. Kjiersten looked out the empty door and broke into a grin.

"Look, Dad! It's sleeting sideways! Don't you just love fishing when it's sleeting sideways?"

"Smartass," he grumbled, pulling on his own baseball cap as he assessed the weather.

It was, in fact, sleeting sideways, and Sig was battling dangerously tall waves as the crew gathered to start hauling the string. Norman grumbled to himself as he followed Kjiersten and Edgar on deck, barely catching the door in time to let Dana scramble out.

"You feel ok?"

She started at his voice as if her mind had been somewhere else entirely. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. Just…you know…"

"Seasick?"

"Um…" she licked her lips and watched Kjiersten and Edgar go through the familiar motions of arguing over the shift's deck positions. "Guess so. Didn't get sick all last season, though."

"Weather's a bit rougher."

"Yeah," she nodded, noting that Kjiersten had predictably lost and relinquished the hook to her dad. She held it out impatiently, her back to them as she continued discussing something or other with Edgar. "That must be it. They're waiting for you."