"Alright!" Alex announced, his relieved announcement interrupting the despair oozing through every deck and level in Trinitite. "That's math done!"

"Oh." She replied, simultaneously glad he'd shown up and anxious that she wouldn't have any more time to develop her story further. She didn't know what kind of questions the princess would ask in the process of 'figuring things out,' but she was sure none of them would have easy answers. "That's great."

Some of that anxiety must have seeped into her features, because it was suddenly mirrored on the human's.

"Something go wrong?" As he asked, his rangefinders flicking to the miniature fleet on the table.

"Oh, no!" She denied, checking her fleet again to ensure she was right. She considered telling him about Paloma's… interrogation, but trying to pit Alex against his mother was anything but a good tactic. Besides, focusing back on her miniatures might be what she needed for the moment, considering focusing on the issue hadn't gotten her anywhere. "Er, not with these… You'll hear about it at dinner."

"Okay…" Alex's concern was directed at her, now. "Should I be worried?"

"I don't think so." Trinitite asserted, although she wasn't certain herself. Nobody seemed angry at her, but that could change at any time.

A moment passed.

"How are these going, then?" Realizing he had to change the subject, Alex leaned over her fleet. "They look pretty good!"

The abyssal found herself leaning in as well. Pride swelled in her two active boilers at the complement, but now that her rangefinders were looking at her work through the lens of her more experienced coworker, small issues became apparent. The lines between white clothing and dark metallic rigging weren't as crisp as those in the guide, she could see a couple beads of glue resting around a couple joints, and one of the Wo-class's tentacles seemed to be attached at an odd angle.

"I could have done better…" she observed, her feelings somewhat mixed.

"Nonsense, you've just started!" Alex defended, and the Wo-class nodded in agreement. She knew she'd done an okay job, and she was proud of what she'd achieved, but her poor sisters deserved to look perfect and the Wos on the internet guide looked much better than hers did.

Maybe they needed the wash for them to finally look 'real,' or perhaps she was just being too critical after her defeat at Paloma's hands. Deep, she still had the followup to that to look forward to…

They didn't have enough time to mix and apply all the different-colored washes they needed, so Alex just walked her through the process, explaining the procedure that would finally finish her fleet. Despite her interest, the abyssal had trouble following along. The occasional presence of Paloma, watching from the kitchen doorway, kept her thoughts from focusing on the upcoming task, however.

The beeping of the oven drifted in from the nearby kitchen, hammering in the Wo's thoughts like a general alarm. It was time.

"Dinner's ready!"

The idea that Paloma was referring to her, instead of the nachos she'd talked about, lingered in the abyssal's mind as she mutely followed Alex in. This was her final chance to think of… something.

The first problem was that she wasn't entirely certain what to prepare for. 'Figure something out' was ominously vague. Despite the fact Paloma seemed like she wanted to help her, that would no doubt come with a price, and certainly they were going to be asking inconvenient questions. Where did she sleep? They couldn't know about her hold, so what would she say if they asked where she stored everything?

"Here you go, Sarah." Her thoughts were interrupted by Paloma, who pressed a pair of cloth pads into her hands. "Careful, it's hot."

Accepting the pads and glancing towards where Alex had carried his own plate, she followed his example and gripped her plate. The dish itself seemed much more chaotic than most meals she'd had, the abyssal easily identifying every ingredient that had gone into the pile in front of her. It seemed like a megar stockpile of triangular chips, covered in a variety of meats and vegetables, all draped in a layer of melted cheese. If she could determine the brown paste they all rested on, she could probably reverse-engineer the meal.

She eased herself into the chair in silence, watching with anxiety as Alex's Father and his Princess took their own meals and seats. The expected statement didn't come immediately, the humans instead plucking individual chips and dipping them in the paste the food rested on. Listening to the crunch of the humans eating their meal didn't do anything good for her steam pressure, so she followed suit.

The chips she'd secured from the Fred Meyers Fleet were long gone, and she didn't remember much about them beyond the fact that they were crunchy, and seemed to disappear far too quickly. The disk-shaped chip she picked was covered in several different chunks of food, their identity obscured under a thick layer of melted cheese. She attempted to scoop up some of the paste like the humans around her were, but with a crack she ended up leaving half of the chip jutting out of the dark material. Thick stuff, or perhaps she put a little too much torque into her scoop.

The two halves finally made it into her mouth, forming a sandwich with the concrete-like paste between them. The distinctive taste of the sun-colored chips seemed to mix well enough with the now-familiar tang of cheese and the earthy taste she assumed was the paste, but the abyssal didn't consider it noteworthy until her teeth sliced into some kind of fruit. She grabbed another chip, trying to identify the source of the unfamiliar flavor, but the dreaded voice of Paloma intervened.

"So, Sarah." She started, the food turning to bilge in Trinitite's mouth. "When did you first come into town?"

That… wasn't so bad.

"Just a few weeks, ma'am" She reported honestly. "A little over two before I joined Jack in the Box."

"So you've been without a home for over a month?" She asked, the softness in her voice something Trinitite still didn't understand.

"You're homeless?"

Alex's exclamation interrupted any reply, his food forgotten as he stared wide-eyed at The Wo-class.

The strength of her fleetmate's response caught Trinitite off-guard. Was being homeless that bad? Yes, every ship needed somewhere she could lay anchor, and the constant, dull pain was a reminder that Trinitite needed to find a drydock eventually, but she was surviving out there, and didn't see any reason why a human couldn't.

"Why-" He started, but his question seemed to evade him. A moment passed, before he weakly finished with an "Oh."

"Paloma and I spent some time talking about this, and we have some ideas." Alex's father spoke up, his tone decisive.

"Mary's room is open for now, but you'll have to move when she comes back for winter break." Paloma added, her voice reinforcing the other human's. "If you want more privacy, there's the old four-runner. Mitchell won't be able to work on it again until next summer anyways, and we can take out the seats in the back for a good sleeping area."

Silence settled in as Trinitite processed the offer. Maybe 'offer' wasn't the proper word, however, considering the assertiveness in her voice. She hummed noncommittally, stalling for additional time.

…

No one was eating. She had to say something, even if it wasn't an actual answer.

"Do I... need to?" she hesitated.

Whatever they had been expecting, it hadn't been that.

"What do you mean?" The princess asked.

"Well," she hesitated. She had plenty of reasons to reject the offer. Minimizing contact with humans had always been her main strategy for looking human, and practically joining a family of them was the exact opposite. She'd have to be careful to store everything she used outside her hull, which was only one of countless problems she'd have to deal with. The safest and largest one, however, eventually came into her mind.

"I don't know how to repay you for what you've done already…"

"Don't worry about that!" The interjection came from Alex's father- the abyssal had forgotten his name again already- as his stare slammed through the carrier's thin armor. "What's important is you get a roof over your head before winter sets in."

What?

"You're from a tropical island, right?" He pressed. "Got plenty of rain before?"

"Yeah?"

"And you realize how much colder the rain is here, right?"

"Yes…" She acknowledged. This was obvious, but she wasn't sure how it was relevant.

"It's going to keep getting colder, Sarah." Paloma continued, her voice grim. "It'll drop below freezing in a few months. It won't be safe to sleep outside then."

'Won't be safe?' Could cold rain, of all things, kill a human? Unless the rain was frozen and launched very quickly, she didn't know how such a thing was possible.

...except she should have, because she'd been warned about it when she first entered the Mill Creek Library! Why hadn't she realized that admitting she lived outside might make them worry for her safety? Surviving something a human shouldn't is what exposed her last time!

She sighed, the feeling she'd been outmaneuvered deepening. If she refused, she might draw suspicion by pointlessly endangering herself. If she didn't, there were plenty of other risks, but that would have to be a future problem.

"What will I owe you?"

The two exchanged a look, as if they'd been expecting her to ask as much. Trinitite briefly wondered if the power structure of the family was more complicated than Paloma simply being the princess, but then she spoke for the two of them.

"I'll take you shopping sometime. You can help pay for the food, I guess."

Trinitite may have lost, yes, but she knew better than to lock herself into an open deal like that.

"So…" she did some quick math in her head. Humans typically had three meals a day, but she'd only really have to pay for two. Jack in the box meals were roughly 12 dollars each, and a month was roughly 30 days. Add those together, and drop the price a little to ensure she had room to negotiate… "...six hundred dollars a month?"

Paloma recoiled, inhaling as if struck. Maurice's rangefinders widened, as Alex was surprised enough to finally join the negotiations.

"What?"

...shit. The abyssal had clearly miscalculated, badly. This was the exact thing she'd hoped to avoid by turning down the offer!

"Seven hundred?" She corrected, hoping to control the damage. It would mean she wouldn't be getting the phone she wanted, and any prospect of her expanding her miniature fleet had gone overboard, but now she just needed to reverse the insult she'd unwittingly given.

"Sarah, we're not trying to extort you." Paloma stated, the expected fury completely absent. "The war's been hard on food prices, but they aren't nearly that bad. I need to take you shopping so you know how to eat on a budget. It'll be more like one hundred, maybe one-twenty a month."

One twenty? As in, just a hundred and twenty dollars? That was less than a day's pay in her old job! Did that mean they'd reacted because she'd horribly overstated her price? The math behind it was sound, unless Jack in the Box overcharged for their food. Did they really just want to help her?

"I… I can do that." She admitted.

"Great." The princess sighed, visibly relaxing. "Alex, you think you can drive Sarah out to pick up her things?"

"Sh- Sure." Alex stumbled, making to stand. Trinitite almost followed him up, her food forgotten, but Mitchell's voice interrupted her.

"Enjoy your dinner first!" He ordered, chuckling. The bespectacled human looked over to Trinitite. "Your stuff is safe, right?"

"Uh… yeah." She confirmed, settling back into her seat. Alex's mistake provided an opportunity to shift attention away from her, allowing the carrier to eat and think while the humans teased their son. This is the first time she'd considered a fleet to be acting unreasonably in her favor. Considering she was getting forced into a deal, she'd expected something much worse. Yes, there was still a lot more risk of exposure then there had been before today, but it still seemed manageable. That left one more question.

Why? No fleet could afford to be this kind to just anyone. Yes, Trinitite was technically Alex's fleetmate, but the Jack in the Box fleet could still operate without her. She'd managed to impress Alex, either at work or on those fake battlefields, but…

No, maybe that was it. Alex saw Trinitite as valuable, and wanted to keep her safe enough. Those opinions had been passed onto Paloma, either via a suggestion or some kind of manipulation, which is what led Trinitite to this position. The human in question seemed innocent, bashfully poking at his plate as he endured the ribbing, but that was now. The Aircraft Carrier knew he had an interest in tactics. Did that spread into strategy and politics?

She was oddly impressed, but that still left the question of why. Alex had to see something in Trinitite, but anything she could think of would have him fleeing her, instead of trying to help.

Her thoughts went to the training she'd received from the McCaulay fleet, and the encounter she'd had on the same site. Perhaps he wanted a trade of genetic material. Alex's tactics weren't anything like sexual harassment, however, and lumping Alex with the human she'd left in the mud seemed grossly insulting. She… just didn't know.

The abyssal would have to wait and see.

The sun set a little early in Chehalis. The valley the town sat in ran from the north to the south, with the steady, wooded ridge of Cook Hill casting a premature shadow over the valley. It hadn't done that yet, the sun gently settling onto the ridgeline, but Alex knew that he'd be driving in darkness soon. At least they'd gotten his coworker's stuff while there was still light.

His hands hung off the steering wheel, Alex's thoughts split between the road and the revelation from earlier tonight. In hindsight, it was obvious, and he'd had his suspicions, but-

After rolling to a halt at a stoplight, he glanced over to his passenger. Sarah looked back, giving him a small smile, but didn't say anything. It made him feel a little skeevy, but as he focused on her clothes, some signs started to show. It was subtle, but the wear on her sleeves from shouldering through branches was clearly there. The clothes looked new enough, which was probably why no one else had noticed, but that only made what tearing he saw more significant.

Three, maybe four weeks, in the wilderness. Sleeping under dripping trees and with the screams of mountain lions not far off, doing god knows what to keep presentable, while he'd been there to help for some time, now.

Alex never got to see where Sara slept, exactly. She'd told him to park at the side of the road up in the mountains, before disappearing behind some bushes. A few minutes later, she returned, a bundled-up coat loaded with supplies in each hand. That had been all, the sum of her worldly possessions fitting neatly into one of the seats behind him. She'd been living like this ever since he'd met her, and although he'd suspected something, Sarah had managed to keep it hidden from anyone who could help.

Except… had she known they would have helped? Sarah had been alone ever since the war, and before that Alex wasn't certain if she'd ever known someone outside her immediate family. Before dinner his friend was shifting in place, swallowing, and generally acting like she was in extreme trouble, when all Mom had wanted to do was just get her some help. This had to be more than just pride.

"Sarah…" He started, knowing he had to say something, but unsure where to go from there.

"Yeah?" She acknowledged, and Alex gulped.

"If you've got any other problems, feel free to tell me about them." The words were automatic, forming as another thought occurred to him: Sure, she probably wasn't facing any issues bigger than this, but he wasn't going to assume that. "I might not be able to help, but, you know-" He stopped, reconsidering his next words. They felt flat and overused, but he had to say something… "I can listen."

A moment passed. Then another. The radio filled the silence, the harmless FM pop song doing nothing to calm Alex's increasingly frayed nerves. Was she ignoring him? Did she really have another problem she was unwilling to talk about? Had Alex gone too far by offering? He wasn't trying to hit on her, but if it came off that way-

"Thank you, Alex." her soft voice finally interrupted his worry. "If something happens, I'll let you know."

Slowly, he released a breath he didn't realize he was holding. That was a relief, kind of. She took far too long to respond for there to be nothing, but at least she knew he was here for her. Perhaps he needed to prove he could be trusted more, or perhaps he was reading too far into things, but he'd done all he could for now. Anything from here would have to be on Sarah's initiative, for now.

This one fought me a good deal. There was a lot more I wanted to fit in during the dinner conversation, like some more intensive questioning of Trinitite's story, but it just... didn't fit. On top of that, I know a lot of readers didn't start this looking for a romance subplot, so while I don't plan on getting rid of it I want to make sure there's focus on other aspects of the story in the upcoming chapters.

I'd also like to apologize for falling behind on posting chapters, here. Another chapter needs to be posted before you're all caught up, which will hopefully happen tomorrow.