Newport, Rhode Island

January 2024

Patriot had finally learned something she'd hoped never to learn. It was the same thing her sister Defiant had gone through three years ago. The feeling of being put away, it was like a cage. Albeit a gilded one but a cage nonetheless. For a boat so used to the sensation of sea and wind, it was the lack of feeling more than anything that bothered her. And that was far from the only odd thing.

Her left hand came to rest across her stomach in an effort to calm the life growing within. Pregnancies in kanmusu were uncommon but not unheard of. However, for one to occur in a boat that still had a link to her real body was a real headscratcher. The source of that pregnancy came up behind her now and Patriot leaned into her fiancée as Britannia wrapped her arms around her.

"How was London?" She asked.

"It's still there." came Britannia's flippant reply as the British boat planted a kiss on the back of Patriot's neck, causing the American to lean more into her in reply.

There's had been a whirlwind romance. Their passion for each other had been as fast as their speed on the racecourse. Time spent together only broken by each's respective duties to their teams. When Patriot had announced her pregnancy last summer, Britannia was overjoyed. The other 75s were equally excited and congratulations flowed from each of their corners of the globe along with various baby shower gifts. That celebration had concluded merely a week earlier. There had been so many boats at the club! Patriot had lost count after a hundred. Not just cup winners, but offshore racers as well. Everything from Maxis to J-boats to even a few Catalina 22s which for their part were torn between shaking Patriot's hand and shitting themselves at being in the presence of such prestigious vessels.

Britannia had been there as well, although she had to catch a flight soon after. That was their life, constantly together and constantly apart. But Patriot had hope that with her fiancée's hull in a museum and she herself likely due for permanent retirement soon, that the separations would come to an end. Britannia had expressed her interest in finding a place perhaps in upstate New York but Patriot didn't particularly care where they settled down. Just as long as she could have the British boat by her side.

Her unborn young did a summersault and Patriot winced even as her heart leaped at feeling that sign of life. Britannia brought her own hand to rest over hers, feeling the movement as well.

"Oh, she'll be trouble!"

"You're so certain it's a girl." Patriot commented.

"Aren't you?" Britannia asked.

Patriot closed her eyes and hummed her accent. Oh yes, she was certain. She'd been certain ever since that visit to the shipyard some months ago and first felt her offspring move inside her. That black-hulled 75 was destined to be joined with her child. The next generation of race boat. Patriot sighed.

"Something wrong?" Let it never be said that Britannia wasn't perceptive. Oh, she could be about as tactful as a bull in a China shop but that was mostly an act. She had been taught well and her impeccable manners only emerged around her beloved Patriot.

"It's strange." Patriot began. "That I will be the mother of New York's next racer is joyous and yet, I feel jealous somehow. A part of me wishes that it was still me out there. I wonder, was I not good enough?"

"Of course you were." Britannia replied.

"Ease off the flattering Britannia and be honest. I shouldn't even be speaking like this, you didn't perform much better." Patriot asked and the British boat sighed.

"You were good enough Patriot. And don't you worry about trying to spare my feelings. I'm at peace with how things turned out but that's because I tried my best and was given the chance to do so. You weren't."

"Perhaps." Patriot shrugged.

Now Britannia lost her flippancy and grasped her gently by the shoulders. "Everyone knows the fastest boat wins the cup. You were the fastest! That you didn't get the chance to prove it is a slight! And Terry and Dean both know it. I know it! Can that be enough?"

Patriot sighed. "Is it wrong of me to say that it isn't?" She asked.

Britannia smiled sadly. "No." She replied, pressing their foreheads together.

Patriot moved her hand off her stomach to rest it on Britannia's cheek. "I will be proud of our daughter no matter what happens. And if she does what I could not, is given the chances that I was not, then all the better. Perhaps she can vindicate us both."

"Perhaps." Britannia agreed. "Have I ever told you how much I love you?" She asked, her lips just brushing Patriot's.

"Many times. But I never get tired of hearing you say it." Patriot replied, leaning forwards.

Patriot II was born a month later. It was a long labor and Britannia and Defiant both took turns watching and worrying, forced back by the doctors that surrounded Patriot. America had shown up at some point and even Vigilant and Columbia made their presence known. Britannia thought it hilarious when the latter made her feelings clear on the doctor's strict visitation orders.

Thankfully, both mother and newborn pulled through okay. Patriot was there when her daughter hit the water for the first time. She was there for the first sail and both her and Britannia watched when she won her first race. Both couldn't be prouder!