A/N: Thank you for all those who have left reviews. I feel like I've gotten a few new followers to this story and I just want to say thanks for following.
Natalie stretched awkwardly and rolled over to settle back into sleep. Her eyes snapped open when she encountered more space than she was use to. On the Northwestern her arm would hit the wall or the bunk above her, here she was able to really stretch out. She luxuriated in the feeling for a moment before slowly opening her eyes. The room was dark and very warm, Natalie sat up and looked around. Josh was snoring softly in the bed across the room. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed she got up and stretched again. She looked down at what she was wearing and cringed. The t-shirt had come unknotted and she looked like she was just wearing a Time Bandit mini dress. Shrugging her shoulders she scooped up her dirty clothes deciding to find out where the washing machine was, after she checked on her patients. Walking down the hall she slipped into the bathroom to use the facilities and brush her teeth with her finger. Then she walked into Mike Fourtner's room. He was still sleeping. Natalie walked forward, sat on the side of the bed and carefully removed part of the bandage.
"Hi Angel" said Mike sleepily.
"Hi Mike" replied Natalie softly.
She inspected the wound and carefully traced along the stitched skin, it was red but not hot.
"What are you going to do?" asked Mike.
"I'm just going to change the bandage" said Natalie.
"How does it look?" asked Mike.
"It's a little red, so I'm going to keep an eye on it" said Natalie. "I'll probably give you some antibiotics, to stave off infection. A crab boat isn't really the best place to have an open wound."
"Yeah well it's hard not to get one" said Mike.
"Um, you got shot" said Natalie, her voice rising slightly. "That is completely preventable."
"It was an accident" said Mike. "I'm sure Andy feels terrible."
Natalie shook her head in response.
"Seriously, it was an accident" said Mike sternly.
"Think what you want, but how do you think Andy would have explained your death to your loved ones" countered Natalie. "Oh we were just fucking around and I shot at the crew and Mike got killed but hey it was just an accident."
Mike sobered at her words and looked down at his hands. Natalie quickly redressed the wound and then checked Mike's pulse.
"On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate your pain?" asked Natalie.
"I don't know, maybe a 5" said Mike.
Natalie placed a couple of pills in Mike's hand and looked around for a bottle of water.
"I'll be right back with some water" said Natalie.
"Don't need it" said Mike, tossing back the pills.
"You need water so the pills don't blow out your liver" said Natalie. "And you should probably go to the bathroom before the pills kick in."
"What did you give me?" asked Mike.
"A pain pill" said Natalie. "Nothing major but definitely stronger than a regular Advil. Also you need to drink plenty of water, you lost a considerable amount of blood."
Mike struggled to stand up, but he got dizzy and immediately sat down again.
"On second thought, let me get you something to pee in and you can just stay in bed" said Natalie.
"I'll find something" said Mike, blushing slightly.
Natalie was going to protest but then changed her mind.
"OK, just call if you need me" said Natalie.
"Sure" said Mike. "By the way I don't think a Time Bandit shirt has ever looked so good on anyone."
Natalie smiled over her shoulder and crossed the hall to the next patient.
Andy's room was pitch black, the black out curtains had been drawn closed and secured with a piece of duct tape. Natalie stifled a scream as a shadow rose up from the small dresser on the other side of the room. It was Jonathan, who appeared disheveled and slightly disoriented.
"He hasn't woken up yet" said Jon with a sigh.
"Well, he did have a lot of pain medication" said Natalie. "He'll probably sleep for at least eight hours."
"It's been almost ten hours" said Jonathan.
Natalie looked stricken, she had no idea she'd slept so long. Closing the gap between the door and the bed in a few steps she began examining Andy's all too quiet form. Kneeling on the bed she pulled down the blankets. Andy's shoulder was swollen, which was to be expected. She experimentally poked at it which made Andy wince in his sleep.
"Well, he's not dead" said Natalie under her breath.
She pulled the blanket the rest of the way down revealing Andy's pajama clad legs. Running her hands down the legs starting at the thigh and proceeding to the foot she tried to feel for more injuries. When nothing was noted she decided to remove the pants.
"Jonathan, I need to get his pants off" said Natalie. "And I need more light. Can I open the curtains?"
"Open what ever you want" said Jonathan.
Natalie snapped the curtains open and saw that it was daylight but not sunny. The slate gray sky looked ominous. Turning back to the bed she reached her hands under the waistband of Andy's pants and slowly drew them down. Andy was starting to move, probably due to the change in temperature.
"Andy, it's Natalie, don't move ok" she said gently.
"You're taking my pants are off" said Andy, his voice thick with sleep.
"I know" said Natalie. "I'm looking for more injuries. Does anything hurt?"
Andy smiled and shook his head. Natalie finished her examination of his legs and moved on to his torso and arms. She passed over his right hand and noticed one of his fingers was swollen.
"I think your finger is broken" she said conversationally.
"That happened earlier" said Jonathan.
"Did someone shoot it?" asked Natalie.
"No" said Jonathan defensively.
"So what happened?" asked Natalie.
"I slammed it in the door" said Andy. "I was trying to make a funny exit for the camera guy."
"It was obviously very successful" said Natalie. "I'll see if I can splint it but it will probably have to be re-broken and set correctly. I can't do that for you."
"I thought you could do anything" said Andy. "We should send you back and ask for another one."
"Another what?" asked Natalie.
"Another hot chick wearing nothing but a shirt to fix my finger" said Andy.
"Good luck finding one of those out here" said Natalie. "And I'm wearing boxers too."
Natalie lifted up her shirt and showed them the boxer shorts. Andy and Jonathan's mouths dropped open and their eyes were glued to the lower half of her body.
"On second thought, lets not send her back, this one is perfect" said Andy.
"You are so right brother" said Jonathan.
"Well if you both are finished ogling me, I'm going to do some laundry" said Natalie.
She walked out of the room leaving Jonathan and Andy alone.
"Holy shit, she is hot" said Andy.
"She is off limits" said Jonathan warningly.
"Is that what Sig told you?" asked Andy.
"No, he didn't say anything about that" said Jonathan with a shrug.
"That means she is fair game" said Andy.
"Game on" said Jonathan grinning wickedly.
Natalie found the washer and dryer fairly easily. She dropped her clothes into the washing machine and then walked slowly up to the wheelhouse. She'd expected to find Jonathan sitting in the captain's chair but instead it was the captain's son.
"Hi" said Natalie.
"Oh hey" said Scott. "How's Andy?"
"He will be fine" said Natalie.
"And Fourtner?" asked Scott.
"He will be fine too" said Natalie. "Do you mind if I sit up here?"
"Nope, I'm just waiting for word from my dad to find out where we are heading" said Scott.
"He's with Andy right now, I think he was there most of the night" said Natalie.
"Yeah, I've been on wheel watch since you got here" said Scott.
Natalie sat on the small bench seat behind the captain's chair and pulled the t-shirt over her knees.
"Do you want some socks or something? Your feet look blue" said Scott.
"Nothing fits me" said Natalie. "This is Josh's shirt and it's like a freaking dress."
"I think there are some girls clothes in my dad's stateroom" said Scott.
"Why?" asked Natalie.
"We sometimes have visitors when we are in port and sometimes they leave articles of clothing behind" said Scott, looking slightly abashed.
"They walk off the boat naked?" asked Natalie in shock.
"No, we give them a Time Bandit shirt or something and they leave a token of their appreciation" said Scott.
Natalie raised an eyebrow, clearly communicating that she didn't believe a word he was saying. Scott was saved by having to give any additional details with the arrival of the man himself.
"Dad, do you have any clothes that might be Natalie's size in your room?" asked Scott.
"Um, probably" said Jonathan. "Come on Natalie, lets get you dressed."
Natalie followed Jonathan into the cluttered stateroom. He sifted through a few piles of clothing until he found a small box of women's clothes. Setting it on the bed he motioned for Natalie to take a look.
"I'll um, leave you to it" said Jonathan.
Natalie smiled gratefully and started to sort through the clothes. After pulling most of the clothes out of the boxes she'd managed to sort them into three piles. The first pile was for clothes she could actually use, so far there was one sweater in the pile. The second pile was inappropriate but possibly useful clothing, it was a fairly high pile. It included such gems as lace tops, skinny jeans and her personal favorite, the zebra print mini dress. The third pile was for clothes she couldn't identify. It had more than a few articles in it. She was currently holding what could be a tube top or a skirt. There were also a lot of bras and underwear, all of which she quickly placed back in the box. Setting it down she sighed and pulled on the jeans. They were tight, but she could easily zip them. After trying on three different tops she settled on the fuzzy sweater. Folding the Time Bandit shirt she tucked it and a few other pieces of clothes under her arm and went back to the wheelhouse.
Jonathan and Josh were standing in front of the radio listening to the ice report. Natalie walked in and set the small pile of clothes on the bench seat before resuming her seat. The crackling radio informed the fleet that the ice was coming down and was already choking the northern edge of the fishing grounds.
"We've got to get our gear out of there" said Jonathan.
"We're a guy down" said Josh.
"Yeah, but we're just pulling the pots" said Jonathan. "We can't leave them up there, they'll get dragged by the ice and we might lose them. Those lost pots come out of all our paychecks."
Jonathan pointed out where the pots were on the plotter and where the ice was suppose to come down to. The ice pack would cover the Time Bandit's northern most string in the next few days.
"We're going north" said Jonathan. "Let Andy know."
Josh turned to walk down to the staterooms when he saw Natalie sitting on the bench seat.
"Looks like we're going to do a little fishing before we return you to Sig" said Josh as he passed.
"How much fishing?" asked Natalie.
"Just rescuing a string" said Jonathan nonchalantly.
"From the ice pack?" asked Natalie.
"Not a big deal" said Jonathan.
"Look me in the eye and say that" countered Natalie.
Jonathan turned around and started to speak but the words caught in his throat when he saw what Natalie was wearing. The skinny jeans sat low on her hips and the sweater sat just at her belly button so there was a swath of tanned skin on display.
"My eyes are up here" said Natalie in a sing song voice.
Jonathan dragged his eyes up to hers.
"Well" prompted Natalie.
"You look great" said Jonathan.
"That's not what I asked you" said Natalie in confusion.
"Yeah, whatever you asked for is fine with me" said Jonathan, his eyes returning to Natalie's torso.
Natalie scowled and turned to stalk down the stairs. The jeans were lower than she knew and Jonathan got a great view of the top of her ass as she walked away.
Scotty and Josh were sitting in the galley eating bowls of cereal. A DVD was playing on the flat screen across from the table but the guys weren't paying it any attention. They were deep in conversation about the pot rescue. Natalie walked in and all conversation stopped.
"Damn it" said Scotty. "You look amazing."
"What?" said Natalie in annoyance.
"Those jeans should be illegal" said Scotty.
Natalie looked down at herself and then spun around trying to get a good view of her backside.
"Oh for fucks sake" she muttered as she attempted to pull up the jeans.
"Whoever wore those jeans before, didn't do them justice" said Josh appreciatively.
"God, I should have probably washed them" said Natalie in disgust.
"No big deal, you're wearing underwear right?" asked Josh.
Natalie gave him a quelling look and then walked down the corridor.
"Don't tell me that" called Scotty after her. "I don't have enough lotion."
"Dude" said Josh. "You are a dog."
"Are you fucking kidding me" said Scott incredulously. "Did you see the body on her? She's going to be in my spank bank for the rest of my life. I'm going to be fucking eighty and still rubbing them out to the image of her in those jeans."
"Dude" repeated Josh, shaking his head.
He got up and put his bowl in the sink before heading down the corridor to his room.
Natalie was lying on Josh's bed, the jeans were on the floor in a heap. She was now wearing the sweater and another pair of boxers similar to the pair he'd lent her the night before. Josh didn't have the heart to tell her she probably looked even more delectable to the crew now then when she had the jeans on.
"Are you ok?" asked Josh. "I'm sorry about Scott."
"Whatever" said Natalie sulkily.
"Are you hungry?" asked Josh.
"Kind of" said Natalie. "But I'm not leaving this room until my clothes are dry."
"Want a candy bar?" asked Josh, holding out a snickers.
"Sure" said Natalie.
She took the candy from Josh, daintily pealed off the wrapper and took a bite. After a few bites Natalie started to feel a bit better.
"How long have you worked on the Time Bandit?" asked Natalie conversationally.
"This is my first season" said Josh, sitting on the bed next to her.
"You seem really good for a greenhorn" said Natalie brightly.
"I'm not a greenhorn" said Josh. "I use to work on my dad's boat, The Cornelia Marie."
"Why don't you work on it anymore?" asked Natalie.
"My dad died unexpectedly" said Josh. "My brother and I just couldn't run the boat without the old man and so we are just working on other boats to get more experience before we try our hand at running it again."
"I'm sorry for your loss" said Natalie. "I'm sorry I brought it up."
"It's ok" said Josh with a sad smile.
Natalie leaned over and pulled Josh into a hug. When she pulled back both she and Josh had tears in their eyes.
"Tell me about your dad" said Natalie quietly.
"He was a great fisherman" began Josh. "He wanted something better for both me and Jake, but when we wanted to fish he worked hard to teach us everything he knew. I miss him everyday."
Natalie listened to Josh relay the story of his dad's amazing life, asking questions when appropriate but mostly just enjoying the tale. When Josh was talked out Natalie settled back onto his pillow, with him laying beside her.
"How long is this pot rescue thing going to take?" asked Natalie after a while.
"You've got somewhere to be?" asked Josh.
"Not really, just curious" said Natalie.
"It will take us about eight hours to get to the strings, assuming we beat the ice we will just pull the sixty pots, load them on deck and then head south" said Josh.
"Sounds simple" said Natalie.
"Nothing is ever simple on the Bearing Sea" said Josh ominously.