A/N: Please read and review.
Natalie sat on the pallet cart while Jake pushed her through the aisles of the store. So far all they'd purchased were drinks. Natalie was sitting on top of 6 cases of water waiting for Jake to get to the snack food aisle. Edgar had added chips and junk food to the list and while Natalie didn't normally eat that kind of food it was clearly something everyone on the Northwestern craved. Stopping in front of the cookies Jake grabbed a few bags of oreos then paused before reaching for some other cookies.
"What kind do you want?" asked Jake.
"None, I don't really eat sweets" said Natalie.
Jake turned and looked at her as if she'd announced she was from the planet Mars.
"Not at all?" asked Jake in disbelief.
"Not really, I like fruit" said Natalie.
"How about a pack of apple newtons, it has fruit in it" suggested Jake.
"That's not really the same but fine" said Natalie.
"Ok, what's next?" asked Jake.
"The pasta aisle" said Natalie.
The next hour and a half was spent methodically filling up two carts up with everything on the list. By the time they were finished Natalie needed a nap. Standing at the check out stand Natalie watched the number on the register rise. By the time the last item was rung up the total came to almost a thousand dollars.
"It's too much" she announced.
"It's fine" reassured Jake.
Natalie hesitantly passed the credit card to the cashier who scanned it before looking at the name on the card.
"Well Sig, you've certainly gotten a little prettier" she said.
"Why thank you, I've been trying out some new make up" quipped Natalie.
Jake and the cashier laughed at Natalie's joke. Natalie scrawled out Sig's name before taking the proffered receipt. She folded the huge receipt and stuffed it into her pocket. At the car Natalie and Jake stood in front of the trunk working to fit everything into the SUV.
"It's like a game of tetris" said Natalie.
"Were you good at that game?" asked Jake as he stuffed a bag into the already full trunk.
"Um, not really" said Natalie.
"Then I'm pretty sure we're screwed" said Jake.
It took the pair almost an hour to pack the car, in the end Natalie drove while Jake sat in the passenger seat with his knees pressed against the dashboard, balancing three cases of muffins on his lap.
"So how are you at driving?" asked Jake.
"Better than you" said Natalie.
"That's not really saying much" said Jake.
"True" replied Natalie.
Natalie put the car in gear and pulled to the edge of the parking lot and stopped.
"What's up?" asked Jake.
"I'm going to need directions" said Natalie.
"Oh, take a left" said Jake.
The pair managed to make it all the way back to the dock in one piece with only a few broken eggs and one split bag of onions.
Sig saw the SUV approach the boat, the rest of the guys had made it back from their errands a few minutes earlier. He was surprised to see Natalie getting out of the drivers side of the car. Watching her walk around the car he wondered what the hell was wrong with Jake that he wasn't able to open the car door. The comedy of errors began the moment Natalie opened the door causing Jake to roll out of the car and onto the ground. Instead of catching Jake, she caught two of the boxes of muffins. Jake obviously said something rude because Natalie dropped both of the boxes on his head and walked away.
"Hey Edgar, go help Junior before the girl beats him up" called Sig over the hailer.
Edgar walked towards the edge of the boat and hopped onto the dock. The Time Bandit had graciously switched spots with Sig so he could load on his gear.
"Hey Natalie what's going on?" asked Edgar.
"Nothing" said Natalie with a pout that would have made a kindergartner blush.
"Ok" said Edgar covering a smile. Can you go ask Matt to get a pallet hooked up to the crane so we can load on the food?"
"Sure" said Natalie.
Showing she was either a fast learner or anger made her brave she dropped onto the deck with nary a wobble. She walked confidently inside to find Matt. She emerged a minute later with Matt in tow. Norman and Matt worked together to set up the pallet and raise it onto the deck.
"How was grocery shopping?" asked Norman.
"Fine" snapped Natalie.
Norman was surprised by her curt answer and glanced sideways at her pink cheeks and angry scowl. Matt noticed too and couldn't leave well enough alone.
"Natalie, are you practicing the Norman method of answering?" asked Matt. "Because the cameras aren't even on here yet."
"You know what" began Natalie but stopped suddenly.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and mouthed something to herself before turning to Matt.
"Sorry, I'm fine" said Natalie. "I think I'm going to give Sig back the credit card and receipt."
With that announcement she turned and walked back towards the house.
"What do you think Jake said to her?" asked Matt.
"Who knows, but whatever it was she clearly didn't like it" answered Norman with a shrug.
In the wheelhouse Sig was pouring over charts of the fishing grounds. He was so engrossed that he didn't hear Natalie walking up the stairs. She watched him for a few moments before she decided to interrupt.
"Sig, I have the credit card and receipt" she said quietly.
"Just hold onto it" said Sig.
Natalie just nodded. Sig not hearing a response looked up from his charts. He saw Natalie's tight mouth and teary eyes.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" asked Sig.
"Nothing" said Natalie giving Sig a fake smile.
"You are a terrible liar" said Sig.
"Yeah well, I don't do it very often" said Natalie.
"Then why start now?" asked Sig.
"Is this an episode of Oprah? Why do you care what's wrong with me? Don't you have some work to do or does the boat decide where to go on its own too" said Natalie.
"Well the kitty has claws" said Sig.
"Fuck off" shouted Natalie before storming down the stairs.
Sig watched her retreating back race down to the galley.
"Wow. What the hell was that?" said Sig to himself.
Deciding that he wanted to know what happened he told Jake to come up. Jake used the outside stairs. The questioning started before Jake even had a chance to close the door.
"What did you say to her?" asked Sig.
"Nothing bad" said Jake. "I think she's just grumpy."
"She just told me to fuck off, I think she's a little more than grumpy" said Sig.
"You don't know that, she might curse like that all the time" said Jake hopefully.
"Tell me what you said to her so we can get back to work" said Sig.
"All I said was that we were going to have lots of fun with her on the boat" said Jake.
"What else did you say?" probed Sig.
"Then she said something about what her job was" said Jake.
"And what did you say?" lead Sig.
"I said she was here to help us" said Jake looking away from Sig.
"What exactly did you say, word for word" said Sig his voice hard.
"I didn't mean anything by it" said Jake.
"What did you say?" continued Sig.
"I said she was here for our pleasure" said Jake. "That it was her job to make us feel good."
"Oh Junior, I swear to God sometimes I think you have bait for brains" said Sig with a sigh.
"I didn't say anything to hurt her feelings" said Jake.
"Well you realize that you basically called her a slut here for our amusement" said Sig.
The color drained from Jake's face at the realization of what he'd said.
"Shit" said Jake.
"Yep" was all Sig said.
Natalie sat stoically in the galley, well as stoically as someone could while watching a bunch of guys make idiotic comments while putting away groceries. She was perched on the counter with a cup of coffee clutched in her hand alternatively drinking out of it and using it to hide her smile. She hadn't offered to help put anything away and the only reason she wasn't in her bunk pouting was she needed to know where the food was being stored. Jake and Sig had made her uncomfortable and hurt her feelings. She was there to help them but not as their pleasure slave. She wasn't even sure that was what Jake had meant, but the implication of his comment were very clear. If everyone on the boat thought that she was just there to do whatever they asked, then she wanted nothing to do with any of them.
"Earth to Natalie" said Edgar.
"What" snapped Natalie in response.
"How tall are you?" asked Edgar.
"5'5 why?" asked Natalie.
"Can you reach into the top cabinet?" said Edgar.
"Possibly" said Natalie.
"I need to know if I can put stuff up there" said Edgar. "So come try and reach."
She hopped down from the counter and walked over to where Edgar was standing. Standing on her tiptoes she reached her arm up to the cabinet, she was just a fingertip short of reaching it. Determined to reach it she hopped a little in an attempt to reach, she managed to touch the item but wasn't able to pull it down.
"I guess that answers my question" said Edgar.
"I can get stuff down from there" said Natalie defiantly.
She opened the lower drawer and stood in it to get onto the counter, once she was up there she knelt up and pulled the package out of the cabinet. Proving her point she put the food back in the cabinet and got down.
"In theory it would work, but I don't think you want to be climbing on the counter once the boat is actually out of the harbor" said Edgar.
"I'll be fine" insisted Natalie.
"Are you kidding, you couldn't even put your socks on without falling and you think I'm going to let you scale the counter every you need something out of the high cabinet" said Edgar.
"Let me? Don't worry about letting me do anything just put the junk food up there. I won't need that" said Natalie.
"We'll just find another place to put everything" said Edgar.
Natalie just shrugged in response and went back to sitting on the counter. The guys continued to put the food away but Natalie wasn't paying attention, all she wanted to do was get the hell off the boat.
In light of Natalie's grumpy mood and her studious avoidance of both himself and Jake, Sig decided to take everyone out to dinner at the Aleutian Hotel. The buffet was tasty and the guys could blow off a little steam in town afterwards. Even more important was getting Natalie out of her bad mood. Sig didn't think there could be anything worse than a woman on the boat, he was wrong a grumpy woman was ten times worse. Sig was about to walk down to the galley to announce his intentions to the group when he heard Natalie's voice. He promptly returned to the wheelhouse and picked up the hailer.
"Everyone, get dressed we're going to dinner" he announced.
Placing the microphone back into the cradle he shook his head muttering to himself not to be a pussy on his own boat. Downstairs the announcement brought glints of amusement to everyone's faces. Immediately everyone sprung into action and moved towards their staterooms to get dressed. Natalie dragged her feet a little giving Norman and Edgar time to change before she walked in. Nick emerged from his quarters as Natalie was strolling down the hall.
"Aren't you going to get dressed?" he asked.
"Yes, I'm just giving the guys a little privacy" replied Natalie.
"That kind of courtesy is totally wasted on this boat" said Nick.
"Well I'd want the same" said Natalie.
"You won't get it" said Nick. "Here's a little something that will help you on this boat. Lower your expectations and you won't be disappointed."
"Why should I lower myself at all?" countered Natalie.
"Because if you'd just not expect too much then you won't be constantly thinking all of us are insensitive idiots. You'll just see that we're guys who are use to just working around guys we care about but don't give a shit about at the same time. We don't worry about respecting boundaries."
"Right" said Natalie.
She rolled around what Nick said in her head as she walked into the room. Both Edgar and Norman were dressed, they both went silent when she entered. Natalie glanced at them and gave a small smile before walking to her bag. She could feel their eyes on her back as she bent over to collect her clothes. Steeling herself for whatever idiotic thing they were about to say, she turned around. They were giving each other sideways glances.
"Go ahead and say what you have to say" said Natalie.
"It's nothing, we'll talk about it at dinner" said Edgar as he hustled Norman out of the room.
Natalie rolled her eyes and hurried to change clothes. She was just putting on some mascara when there was a soft knock on the door.
"Come in" she called.
"Hey, just wanted to see if you were ready" said Matt.
"Yeah, I'm ready" replied Natalie.
"Um, you probably want to grab a sweater or something" said Matt staring at Natalie's shirt.
"Why?" asked Natalie her voice hardening.
"Because we are in Alaska and it's cold at night" explained Matt.
"Oh, right, of course" said Natalie sheepishly.
Grabbing a sweater out of her bag she quickly followed Matt out onto the deck. The climb to the dock was much easier, clearly practice did make perfect. The group piled into a few of the SUV's parked on the dock and headed to dinner.
The sun was setting as they drove to the hotel for dinner. Natalie watched the changing colors from the car window. The ruggedness of the surroundings were completely offset by the subtle beauty of the dimming sky. The Hansen brothers and Jake were in the other SUV leaving Natalie some breathing room with Matt and Nick. Matt drove through the massive processing facilities across the bridge into Dutch Harbor.
"It's pretty isn't it" said Nick startling Natalie from her revelry.
"Very" said Natalie.
"It's even prettier when were out at sea" he continued.
"I guess I'll have to wait a little to see that perspective" said Natalie.
"Not too much longer. How are you feeling about going?" asked Nick.
"I'm a little nervous" said Natalie.
"You'll be fine, we'll all keep you safe" said Nick.
"Yeah, the biggest danger is being worked to death" said Matt.
Natalie smiled but was pretty sure Matt wasn't making a joke. The rest of the car ride was filled with anecdotal stories about Dutch. They ranged from bits of town history to pointing out the street lamp where Matt threw up on a cab driver. By the time they reached the Aleutian Hotel Natalie had lost her bad mood.
Sitting at the table with plates piled with food the men of the Northwestern began discussing fishing strategies. For Natalie it seemed like an exercise in futility because ultimately Sig was going to make his own decision. Although he seemed to take an interest in what the guys were saying, he clearly valued his own experience and knowledge over theirs.
"I think Natalie should get to pick where to drop the first string" said Matt.
"Sure, why not" said Sig. "But she has to christen the stack."
Natalie glanced at Sig her face awash with confusion.
"What does christening involve?" she asked.
"I'll tell you later" said Sig with a smile. "How's your dinner?"
"It's delicious, everything here is wonderful" said Natalie politely.
"The Cornelia Marie and the Time Bandit once had an epic food fight here" said Matt. "They are still both banned from eating here at the same time."
"I would think they would be banned all together" commented Natalie.
"The hotel probably doesn't want to miss out on the money" said Sig.
Natalie just nodded, she had no doubt that their table alone probably spent at least a couple of c-notes on drinks and every other table in the full dining room seemed to be doing the same. Taking another sip of her wine she noticed two guys standing behind Sig talking and pointing to the table. Before she could tell anyone, they'd walked over.
"Sig, how's it going?" said the taller guy.
"Christian, don't tell me you're already going to start harassing us" said Sig. "We aren't even on the boat."
"No camera" said Chris holding his palms up.
"Sit down" said Sig.
Chris and the other guy, Jason, pulled up chairs and joined the table. Natalie quietly observed the new guys, who she assumed they were part of the discovery crew. After all how many people could Sig accuse of harassment.
"Sig are you making a habit of having girls on your boat?" asked Chris.
"She's Edgar's addition" said Sig.
"Oh yeah, I thought Edgar was married" said Chris.
"Don't even start with that shit. She's a therapist" said Edgar.
"That's awesome, if any job needs one of those it's yours" said Chris.
"Hi, I'm Chris" he said extending his hand to Natalie
"Natalie" she replied.
"Nice to meet you, I'm sure we will be seeing a lot of each other over the next few weeks" said Chris.
"Don't count on it, she's taking a page out of the Norman school of silentry" said Edgar.
"Oh please don't. Then you'll become some sort of a challenge to conquer. We have bets every season on who can make Norman talk the most" said Chris.
"Yeah, last year I won" piped Jason.
"Congratulations" said Natalie. "I'm sure it was no small feat."
"It was tough, I worked everyday of opies to get him to say one full sentence on camera, then it was cut from the show" said Jason.
"It will probably be in the next behind the scenes special, so don't lose hope" said Chris.
Norman rolled his eyes but kept silent through the whole exchange. Natalie reached under the table and squeezed his leg in silent mirth. His eyes shifted sideways to catch Natalie's gaze and he gave her a negligible smile. The rest of dinner passed in pleasant banter between the Discovery guys and the Northwestern crew. Natalie just sat back and watched the insults fly, but by the end of the meal she was trading quips and insults with the best of them.